Ballymun tower reduced to rubble - in five seconds

Hundreds of Dubliners braved cold conditions yesterday morning to witness a little piece of Dublin's history, and a big part of its skyline, being razed. Ballymun's 15-storey Seán MacDermott tower block has stood for four decades but it came crashing down in just five seconds.

The tower was demolished with the touch of a button shortly after 10am, having been wired with explosives over the last six weeks by the Newry-based Tinnelly Demolition company.

The 60kg of PETN explosives drilled into 1,500 shot holes in the tower's walls took a little more than a second to detonate - and then another four seconds for the 90-flat building to collapse on itself.

A massive dust cloud filled the north Dublin air and when it - and the cheers from the assembled crowd - faded away, all that remained was 8,500 tonnes of rubble. This will be removed from the site in coming weeks and recycled, paving the way for a hotel to be built on the site.

Minister for Housing Noel Ahern was on hand yesterday to deliver a brief address to the assembled crowd. Unfortunately for him, he ran out of things to say before the demolition went ahead and filled the time nervously joking with the crowd, much to their amusement.

The hapless Minister then started counting down to the moment of demolition from 10 seconds. He got this wrong, too. When he and the crowd reached zero, nothing happened.

The workers preparing to push the demolition button could then be heard over the public address system at number five in their countdown.

To everyone's relief, not least Mr Ahern's, when this second countdown reached zero, the sound of an explosion filled the air and the tower fell. A massive dust cloud rose from the rubble and everybody went home with a smile on their face.

The MacDermott tower is one of seven 15-storey blocks in the old 36-block Ballymun scheme. Seven of these blocks are now gone, with the other six having been dismantled rather than imploded. Most of the remaining blocks will also be dismantled as part of the €2.5 billion regeneration of Ballymun, which will not be completed until between 2012 and 2015.