With rush hour traffic piling up on the main approach roads into the city, clever buyers are targeting the few remaining inner suburban areas where prices haven't yet gone through the roof. Anyone prepared to sacrifice the en suites and Shaker kitchens that come with brand new houses in the distant suburbs can acquire one of the three-bedroom terraced houses on Walkinstown's "musical roads" - named after famous musicians or singers, or the "saints roads" in Greenhills for the same price or less.
People who regularly drive through Walkinstown know this suburb as the location of the most difficult roundabout to navigate on the east coast. Roads radiate out from here in all directions like the spokes of a wheel. It is three miles from the city centre, on several bus routes and the houses have a settled well-cared-for look. The lack of a village centre may give the impression that this area is lacking in community life, but nothing could be further from the truth.
There are more musical groups, sports clubs and community halls within half a mile of the Walkinstown roundabout than most suburban areas. Greenhills and Zanadu musical societies have won John Player awards in different years and 60 members of the local pitch and putt club have just returned from a trip to Carlow. The ladies club, which has met every Thursday since 1968, is off to Paris soon on the annual outing.
Look out for the Mini-Olympics Festival organised for the July 22nd weekend under the joint banner of the Walkinstown Residents' Association and Walkinstown Sports and Athletic Federation. It will kick off with a parachute jump sponsored by The Kestrel pub followed by inter-street football competitions.
Little remains of the old townland of Greenhills, where the discovery of many cists and stone age burial sites marks it as a place of some importance in the past. As in most farming areas on the southern outskirts of the city, the population was subject to attacks over the centuries by raiders from the Wicklow hills.
Visitors to Walkinstown shouldn't miss Drimnagh Castle in the grounds of the local Christian Brothers' school, currently being restored by FAS and open to the public at weekends. The Flanagan family lived in one of the great houses of the area, acquired 25 years ago by Superquinn for their supermarket on Walkinstown Road. The notorious "Bird" Flanagan is said to have ridden his horse up the steps of the Gresham Hotel for a bet. The Long Mile Road was named after another of Bird's wagers, that his mount would beat anyone else's over a mile race on this road. The race was said to have been "a very long mile". Characters abound in Walkinstown.
Among the most famous is "Chicken" Cullen, now deceased, who for several years resisted the efforts of council officials to demolish his cottage home to make way for the present roundabout. The council had offered him an alternative house close to the site, with the customary token annual rent of a shilling. He relented only when the officials agreed to waive this fee in his case.
Boxing fans will associate the area with Olympic gold medallist Michael Carruth. The boxer was one of a family of 10 children who grew up on St Peter's Road and he boxed his first round at the local community centre. Like many families who moved out from the inner city when the houses were first built in the 1950s and 1960s, Joan and Austen Carruth extended the house to accommodate their growing family. Bought for £1,750 in 1960, the house would probably fetch around £200,000 at today's values.
The couples who moved here as newly-weds "gelled" together, says Joan Carruth and they worked hard to raise money for a community hall with sports facilities for the children. Austen Carruth trained many successful boxers from the Greenhills centre, including three of his sons. Eight of their 10 children are married now and three have bought houses nearby.
Because of this sense of continuity, young Walkinstown and Greenhills people have always tended to stay in the area. They are now competing with first-time buyers from all over the city who see the neat terraced houses as a perfect jumping-off point in the housing market. Nothing stays for long in local estate agents' windows and prices are rising steadily. Local agent Paul Dorney looks back with incredulity on one of the first Walkinstown houses he sold in 1976, a "musical" terrace on Percy Road for £9,800.
The most popular areas in Walkinstown are the "musical" roads and tree-lined Cherryfield and Beechfield Roads. The "saints" roads in Greenhills are also very sought-after. With a few exceptions, all the houses are three-bed terraced, many with extensions built on afterwards. There are a few bungalows, particularly on Walkinstown Road, which "fly off the books" on the rare occasions they are for sale.
The musical roads are sandwiched between Walkinstown and Cromwellsfort Roads, with names like John McCormack Avenue and Thomes Moore Road. Currently on the market here is a three-bed mid-terrace on Thomas Moore Road with Prestige Properties asking in excess of £140,000 and two on Balfe Road East with the same agent for late £160,000s and region £170,000. Douglas Newman Good has a three-bed end-terrace for sale on Hughes Road South for excess of £155,000.
There are a number of houses currently on the market in "the saints" area of Greenhills. Many of these roads are quaintly narrow and the houses are generally very well-kept. Prestige is selling a three-bed terrace on St James Terrace with an asking price of mid-£160,000s and KMW is selling number 20 St Peter's Road for £185,000. Douglas Newman Good has an extended St Peter's Road house for £160,000-plus and a three-bed mid-terrace on St Joseph's Road looking for excess £175,000.
STILL on St Joseph's Road, Vincent Glavey is selling a three-bed end terrace in need of modernisation, asking in the region of £160,000. Another three-bed mid-terrace on St Patrick's Road is asking £178,000 with Sherry FitzGerald. KMW has one of the rare bungalows for sale on Drimnagh Road with three bedrooms and a price tag of region £180,000 and Sherry FitzGerald is selling a detached bungalow on Tymon Lane, off Greenhills Road, for £215,000.
First-time buyer bargains are to be found in the former corporation houses between Walkinstown Avenue and Walkinstown Road.
KMW is selling a two-bed terrace on Walkinstown Drive for in the region of £140,000 and a three-bed on Walkinstown Park for in the region of £145,000 Prestige has a Walkinstown Drive two-bed priced in the mid-£130,000s and Vincent Glavey has another guiding £130,000. A three-bed mid-terrace on Walkinstown Drive with Douglas Newman Good is asking £135,000.
Plus
Many starter homes
Strong community spirit
Close to City centre
Minus
No village centre
Poor supply of period houses
