SMITHFIELD SQUARE MAY 2022 BANK HOLIDAY VISIT

SMITHFIELD SQUARE MAY 2022 BANK HOLIDAY VISIT

I live about five minutes walk from Smithfield Square [or Plaza] but I avoid the area because I find it to be unattractive and somewhat bleak.

The square and the associated public space should be a lot better than it is especially as Dublin City Council has spent a fortune on multiple re-inventions of the area. One issue has always been the impact of anti-social behaviour. I have two friends own purchased apartments on the square and they felt compelled to sell-up and move on because of multiple problems associate with day-to-day life in the area.

To be fair, the anti-social problems are no longer as bad as they were in they past but they still make the the area less than desirable.

Smithfield is an area on the Northside of Dublin. Its focal point is a public square, formerly an open market, now officially called Smithfield Plaza, but known locally as Smithfield Square or Smithfield Market.

Notable landmarks include the Old Jameson Whiskey Distillery and the Observation Tower.

Notable businesses include the children’s animation studio Brown Bag Films.

Historically, Smithfield was a suburb of Oxmantown and lay within the civil parish of St. Paul’s.[1] There is no general agreement on the extent of the area known as Smithfield, but it roughly incorporates the area bounded by the River Liffey to the south, Bow Street to the east, Queen Street to the west, and North Brunswick street in the suburb of Grangegorman to the north.

Commercial, residential and cultural developments led to the area becoming newly fashionable in the first decade of the 21st century. However, most notably in the period 2008 to 2010, stagnation set in as developments stalled and the Irish economy/property market nose-dived once the post-Celtic Tiger economic recession struck. The significant issues of variable apartment occupancy rates, coupled with closed retail spaces and a number of unfinished and unoccupied commercial units at Smithfield Market have created a highly visible reminder of the economic and community challenges still to be addressed in this historic part of Dublin.