Sample Field Trip #1

If one was told 40 years ago that a 'new town' would be built around the small village of Tallaght which would, by the century's end, have a population greater than either Limerick or Galway or Waterford one would be surprised. The new town and its hinterland could in many respects be a metaphor for Ireland in the second half of the twentieth century.

Origin of its name
Tallaght (from Tamhlacht) is an old settlement, probably originating, as the placename infers, as a burial ground for plague victims. It subsequently became a vital centre in early Irish monasticism under the leadership of Maelruan whose name is commemorated in the Church of Ireland. Major texts were produced in the Scriptorium attached to the monastery. These were edited by scholars asscociated with the gaelic revival in the early part of the 20th century. Subsequently it became the location for the archiepiscopal palace of the archbishop of Dublin and a staging post for a military settlement to guard the flanks of the city from attack by the men of the hills. It would seem that much of the land in the district was allocated to soldier-settlers from Wales who settled, as did the Bulkeleys in Old Bawn, and the Village became an integral part of the defences of the Pale. Part of the medieval settlement remains incoporated into the Dominican monastery founded here in the late nineteenth century and both the church and seminary gave new focus to the roadside village.

A new town
Tallaght was a country place on the road to Blessington in the 1960s. During that decade there was a renewed interest in physical planning which, in some respects, had developed in post-war Britain as a response to the enormous damage of blanket bombing. There, the new towns emerged as the panacea to congested, rundown inner cities. Dublin (relatively unscathed by the war) had its own housing problems particularly in the inner city between the Royal and Grand canals. Experts were commissioned to design overspill towns which would have a mix of public and private housing, industrial estates to provide work, a road system which would segregate local and through traffic, neighbourhood centres with churches, schools and basic shopping facilities and open space for recreational purposes. The permanent separation of home from work was to be evident in the new townscape.

A new vision of town planning?
A planning consultant from Liverpool, Myles Wright, was given the job of sorting out Dublin. His two volume plan is an excellent snapshot of what he called the Dublin Region. It was his recommendation that three new towns be constructed to the west and south-west of the then built-up area which had such profound repercussions on the quiet village of Tallaght and its hinterland. The story of Tallaght's evolution to major urban status has never been fully charted but throughout the 1970s the concrete was poured on many a greenfield.

The proposed new towns on the west side of Dublin in the Miles Wright plan

Tallaght comes of age
It was supposed to be the ultimate planned environment. However, the delay in providing the town to service the housing created enormous problems for young families. We have a good idea where the population who moved to Tallaght came from (a mixture of those from the inner and outer suburbs of Dublin and those drawn from elsewhere in Ireland) but the nature of this migration has not received detailed attention. Tallaght has evolved greatly in the past 40 years and the belated provision of a town centre has given it a heart. In a similar way the addition of a regional third-level college, a major hospital and shopping centre has demonstrated how bereft it was of urban services until recent times. In an administrative sense, Tallaght has evolved through the centuries from parish to manor and now, the centre of Ireland's newest county, South County Dublin. So there is much fieldwork awaiting the researcher here.

The relocation of people, industries and services is one of the great themes of twentieth century geography and Tallaght with its myriad examples is an ideal location for examining the geographical dynamic.