Glasnevin, sometimes known as the "dead centre" of Dublin after its famous cemetery, is one of the few urban villages close to the city centre where there is a house to suit most pockets - Edwardian family houses, attractive period cottages and a good supply of ex-Corporation houses suitable for first-time buyers.
There are two distinct parts to Glasnevin, the original village area packed with lovely period red-bricks, many built by Alexander Strain around the turn of the century, and Glasnevin North, which covers the newer houses on the fringes of Finglas and Ballymun. The older area is highly sought-after and has a strongly protective residents association which keeps a watchful eye on changes.
The boundaries of Glasnevin stretch from the Royal Canal to Glasnevin Avenue and from Finglas Road to the edges of Drumcondra. Residents on the outskirts vie to have their roads designated as being in Glasnevin: some years ago, Ballymun Avenue was changed to Glasnevin Avenue by house owners anxious not to be associated with the flats complex.
Iona Road and the neighbouring roads, where most of the Strain-built houses are situated, is a residential conservation area where planning permission is required for most exterior work. Variations in decorative brickwork signify a time when houses were built to rent and rent collectors recognised their clients' houses by these distinctive trademarks. Sadly, despite the conservation designation, PVC windows adorn many period houses.
Iona houses sell for big money whatever their condition. Prices are nudging towards the £400,000 mark - and the story is much the same on nearby Lindsay, Cliftonville and Marguerite Roads. Prices are similar too on Iona Park, Crescent and Villas. Gunne sold a redbrick three bedroom semi-detached house in need of decoration on Lindsay Road just before Christmas for £335,000. The house two doors down and in similar condition achieved £230,000 in 1998 with the same agency. Douglas Newman Good sold a house on Lindsay Road for £300,000 last November and a corner house in poor condition but with original fireplaces for £350,000. The agency achieved its best price ever in the area last year with £367,000 for a three-bedroom end of terrace house on Cliftonville Road.
In every century since Saint Mobhi established a monastery here in the sixth century, Glasnevin seems to have had more than its fair share of interesting people. Apart, that is, from a low period during the 16th century when the area developed a reputation for bull baiting and later when Archbishop King, in Mant's History of the Church of Ireland, described the village as "a receptacle for thieves and rogues" in 1725.
The Holy Faith convent now stands on the site of Glasnevin House, home of ship-owner Sir John Rogerson. Dean Swift went into hiding in an outhouse at Delville, home of the Delaneys, together with the printing press that published his controversial Drapier's Letters. Mary Delaney, a supporter of the local weaving industry, visited Dublin Castle dressed from head to toe in Irish lace and linen as a protest against linen and lace tariffs. Delville, on the site of the present Bon Secours hospital, was demolished in 1901.
The National Botanical Gardens, with its beautiful curvilinear glasshouses, was laid out by botanist Dr Walter Wade in 1795. The flower which inspired Thomas Moore's "Last Rose of Summer" is said to bloom still near the main entrance gates. The renowned Lindsay Singers choral group, founded by Glasnevin resident Eithne Barror and her late husband Cecil, was named after one of the most popular roads in the area.
Glasnevin is the last resting place of many famous patriots and poets. The stone walls and turrets of the cemetery, built as look-out posts to prevent body snatching, dominate the pretty squares around the old graveyard entrance. Thirsty gravediggers used to knock on the walls of the pub at the gates to order their pints of porter.
The two-bedroom and three-bedroom terraced houses on De Courcy and Prospect Squares and anywhere around Botanic Avenue have a certain cachet and are quickly snapped up when they come on the market. Most of these have gone beyond a first-time buyer's reach, selling for around £170,000 in reasonable condition. Douglas Newman Good has one of the De Courcy Square cottages coming on the market soon and say that the asking price will be in the region of £130,000; Sherry Fitzgerald is selling a two-bed terraced house on Botanic Avenue needing upgrading for £180,000.
Cremore is another enclave of solid detached and semi-detached houses built by Alexander Strain in the late 1920s. They are enduringly popular for their size and location off Glasnevin Hill. Strain may have felt that these were the best houses he had built - he eventually retired to live in 24 Cremore Park.
Everyone is agreed any bargains are to be found in less fashionable Glasnevin North, close to the campus of Dublin City University. This is a great rental location - one agent quotes "at least £800 a month" for a three-bedroom semi-detached. The Tolka estate is well-matured and the houses have acquired a certain quaintness. Some of these in nice condition sell for around £125,000. A lot of the St Pappins and Wadelai properties across the Ballygall Road are in maisonettes and flats. These can be bought for under £120,000. Sherry FitzGerald recently sold 12 Drapier Road, which needed upgrading, for £105,000.
The larger privately-built semi-detached houses close to DCU are popular with families and investors. Douglas Newman Good is in the process of selling a three-bedroom house on Glasnevin Avenue for £230,000 and Sherry Fitzgerald has 34 Pinewood Crescent on its books for £190,000. There is a scarcity of apartment schemes in the area and most of the newly built complexes sell well to retired Glasnevin residents. Hamilton Osborne King is currently selling a two-bedroom apartment in River Gardens, off Glasnevin Hill for £165,000. A bonus with this complex is the gardens, which are tended by staff from the Botanic Gardens.
