Experiencing Dublin's Docklands: perceptions of employment and amenity changes in the Sheriff Street community

Abstract

Abstract Flagship projects and gentrification have a profound impact on the neighbourhoods which surround them. At present, most studies focus on their housing implications. We seek to engage in a broader understanding of their effects by examining the ways in which residents of a low-income neighbourhood adjacent to a new waterfront development perceive and experience changes in employment opportunities and local amenities which have arisen because of this project. We will examine the discourses of long-term residents (those residing for more than 25 years) of the Sheriff Street neighbourhood – one of the city's most deprived – towards the new Dublin Docklands and its International Financial Services Centre (IFSC). This type of engagement with non-gentrifying groups is currently lacking from academic research and consequently limits our full understanding of the impact of these spaces. What we have found is a complex and nuanced picture, where residents are both optimistic and disappointed by the impact ...