The Irish Times

Ballymun's flats look weary. The towers are smothered in graffiti, inside and out. As they empty, windows and doors are boarded. The once intimidating blocks are losing a battle for the skyline with the cranes and new office and apartment blocks. A civic centre now hogs Main Street. The hoarding and roadworks will soon unveil a gleaming new leisure centre. A pharmacy has opened, its shopfront a dash of colour against the dirt and dust of development. Ballymun is a town emerging from a cocoon and its towers are about to be shed. Next Saturday the demolition of Pearse Tower will begin. After the presence of asbestos threatened serious delays, half of the blocks are now considered safe to dismantle. They will not come down in dramatic detonations, but be gradually eaten away over a few weeks. The small chunks of debris will be ground down and re-used. The new Ballymun will be built, in part, from the bones of the old.