VIDEO: "mmm skyscraper i love you..." McDermott Tower comes crashing down in Ballymun
dublin |
housing |
news report 
Wednesday March 16, 2005 20:20
by kevin
Short DivX film for you to download.
Ballymun is a suburb on the north fringe of Dublin city centre. Before the 1960's it was a rural community, the remnants of which can still be seen dotted around the landscape today. In a period of relative economic prosperity, hundreds of families, mostly from the few surviving inner city tenements, were housed in new high-rise blocks in the mid to late 1960's, which at the time were hailed as modern, even futuristic. Long term residents remember how people queued in housing offices to get re-housed in the new tower blocks. The architecture and housing solutions had been directly imported lock stock from the UK where similar experiments had sprouted from the ground up in the 1950's (and by the time Ballymun was being built, the purported benefits of high-rise housing were already being questioned across the water).
Ballymun suffered from the nelgect associated with mass high-rise estates and developments as time progressed. Housing was built but necessary facilities and support for council tenants did not materialise. As a result Ballymun became isolated from the city. The only high rise suburb in the city soon became associated with poverty and exclusion. With the arrival of heroin into Dublin in the 1980's, existing social problems were intensified.
Ballymun is currently undergoing a massive regeneration, with most of the original eight storey blocks and all of the seven "signatories" towers (named after the seven men who signed the 1916 proclomation of independence) being demolished. Despite being a high rise suburb, Ballymun was actually low-density. The flat blocks were surrounded by large green spaces. These spaces between the blocks are being filled in with low-density, low-rise housing, which has been built and designed in consultation with the residents of the area over the past few years.
This short (2:35) film captures the demolition of the McDermott Tower on the morning of Sunday March 13th 2005. It is the only tower that will be imploded for safety reasons. The demolition had meant to take place the previous Sunday but had been postponed after the death of a worker on the site. An investigation into his death is ongoing. The demolition of the tower blocks means that one of the most distinctive places in Ireland will be lost for ever. The Ballymun towers were visible from every part of Dublin, and they were the first sight for people arriving back into Dublin airport. Most residents seem to be happy with the regneration, and are glad to see the towers go, despite many people expressing nostalgic regret for the sense of community that had grown in the towers.
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Comments (9 of 9)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9mmm skyscraper i love you. mmm skyscraper i love you.
thirty thousand feet above the earth. its a beautiful thing.
and you're a beautiful thing.
and i see elvis! elvis!
i see porn dogs sniffing the wind. sniffing the wind for something new.
porn dogs sniffing the wind for something violent they can do.
will you be my big plaything. my total big disorientator.
will you be my big plaything. my ninja power. my number cruncher.
the city is a whore tonight.
and i see god talking! elvis! god talking!
pornfest pork fat jesus christ night light.
elvis fresh meat and a little whipped cream.
thirty thousand feet above the earth. thirty thousand feet above the earth.
beautiful thing. you're a beautiful thing.
thirty thousand feet above the beautiful earth.
mmm skyscraper i love you. mmm skyscraper i love you.
mmm skyscraper i love you. mmm skyscraper i love you.
like i feel you. like i feel you. like i feel you. like i feel you...
I've never liked towers you know.
+ * .:. @ $ % € "you can't look in the windows"
Keymaker: There's a building. Inside this building there's a level where no elevator can go, and no stair can reach. This level is filled with doors. These doors lead to many places, hidden places, but one door is special. One door leads to the Source. This building is protected by a very secure system. Every alarm triggers the bomb.
Vector: Bomb? Did he say bomb?
Keymaker: But like all systems it has a weakness. The system is based on the rules of a building. One system built on another.
Morpheus: Electricity.
Keymaker: If one fails, so must the other.
Niobe: No electricity, no alarms.
Ghost: But you'd have to take out a whole city block to kill the power to a building like that.
Keymaker: Not one, 27.
Vector: 27 blocks?
Keymaker: There is a power station. it must be destroyed.
Niobe: There must be some kind of failsafe.
Keymaker: Yes, there is an emergency system. The core network of the grid must be accessed. The emergency system must be deactivated.
Soren: Then what do you need us for? Neo could take 'em both out easier than we could.
Keymaker: There's no time.
Niobe: Why?
Keymaker: Once the door is unprotected, the connection will be severed. But another connection must first be made.
Ghost: How long will that take?
Keymaker: Exactly 314 seconds.
Soren: Just over 5 minutes.
Keymaker: That is the length and breadth of the window. Only The One can open the door, and only during that window can the door be opened.
Niobe: How do you know all this?
Keymaker: I know because I must know. It's my purpose. It's the reason I'm here. Same reason we're all here.
Trinity: Neo, I know something's wrong. You don't have to tell me. I just want you to know that I'm here.
Keymaker: All must be done as one.
(from the educational text to the popular fable story of Zion which must be built known as the Matrix)
Starring Keanu Reeves dressed as a member of Opus Dei named "Neo" it is not currently on the banned "dirty movie" list.
last night all members of a royal family were flown out of Eire and the taoiseach confirmed that Al Q were responsible for the attack on the Mac Dermott tower in Balymun / Glasnevin, other attacks on DCU Glasnevin were stopped, and a fourth attack on Knock airport was diverted at the last moment causing the dissapearance of county Offaly.
Bertie has accordingly decided to demonise Israel, who are at this moment considered responsible,
"who invented God and the divil" the taoiseach is reported as saying, "who's bible is it?" added the minister for eggs Mary Harney.
Irish public opinion is staunchly behind a land invasion of the state of Israel which will be launched by the coalition of the willing as part of the Good Friday agreement as soon as the weapons inspectors of sweden can be humiliated enough.
blah blah blah blah blah balh
you have the key.
don't change an "iota" of your by now very well rehearsed campaign positions.
we can't lose.
nice little documentation :-)
I presume this and the prisons film can be shown and distributed freely?
yep go ahead.
Its a pity in more ways than one. You'll never see such solidly-built and spacious apartments ever built again in Dublin.
Long live the overpriced matchboxes built by Zoe developments and others...
New Ballymun website. With photos of tower implosion and loads of other cool shit.
http://www.newballymun.com/index.php
Yes, everyone wants an ol' front and back garden.
Unfortunately we can't afford one! €210,000 for a 1 bedroom kip of an apartment in Inchichore? Hundereds of Euro every year "maintenance fees"?
Bring back the old Ballymun, I'll take a spacious 3 bed apartment.
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