Category talk:Planned communities in the Republic of Ireland

Other candidates

Should this also include Ballymun (something very small to major suburb in one leap), and for that matter the other orbital towns like Tallaght? And what of more of the clearest "estate villages / towns" such as Birr? At any rate, I think it needs a brief defining wording, scoping what should be here for all to see. A good and useful category. SeoR (talk) 12:50, 20 October 2021 (UTC)

@SeoR: I was very surprised that a category such as this didn't exist already! I would agree that Ballymun and Tallaght would count. I was working from two sources here and here, as I would also interpret Borris, Birr and other estate towns as "planned". I would welcome a description, as the part I am unsure about is plantation towns. Smirkybec (talk) 13:38, 20 October 2021 (UTC)

Smirkybec, I will study those, and will add Birr and others. Indeed project towns are easy, even village-scale ones like Valentina’s Knightstown, but the question is how far back to go, such as yes, pls ration towns. I’ll try to find an academic description to consider. SeoR (talk) 16:09, 21 October 2021 (UTC)

SeoR I don't think I would be adding a lot more to this category. Another list that has been suggested to me is in Gillian Darley's Villages of Vision (1 st edn), The Architectural Press, London, 1975 which does overlap with some of the ones already included like Abbeyleix and Bessbrook. It is not a comprehensive list either. I don't expect the category to expand too much more to be honest. We could look to more granular categories such as model villages and estate villages if it looks like it is too broad. I'm very happy to discuss this further as it unfolds! Smirkybec (talk) 16:39, 21 October 2021 (UTC)

Sounds great, and I think yes, sub-classification might be best, even now, to help guide on what kind of "planned", as there are now all types from "from scratch" to "much-modified", and that definition is still needed, to make some kind of cut-off line. I am studying further today myself, it will be a most interesting lunchtime excursion. SeoR (talk) 08:10, 22 October 2021 (UTC)

Biggest question at the island level is around Belfast, originally highly planned; early plantation (London)Derry was also planned... SeoR (talk) 10:24, 22 October 2021 (UTC)

Yeah, so far I have excluded early plantation towns in favour of industrial, estate, model, garden suburbs and utopian communities. I mean, if you start including anything with a degree of planning then the redevelopment of Dublin with the Wide Streets Commission could count. I went with the term "planned communities" as it was the over arching term already in use within existing categories, I'm not wedded to it! These categories, broadly speaking, look underdeveloped anyway. Smirkybec (talk) 10:31, 22 October 2021 (UTC)

Exactly - that's why, in reviewing NI, I did not flag Derry as yet - it was planned, but long ago, and its New Town designation was an admin. matter, not a true "New Town" project (as anyone who has visited the city can see, some of its charm comes from its organically developed and unplanned structure) - and this is also the case for Dublin (the Wide Sts Comm. did great work, but impacting just a few % of the whole modern city). Same for e.g. Antrim. Belfast I would consider, as a later, and wholly planned, venture. ANd yes, in Dublin, I'd skip the centre as such - but maybe put the Wide Streets Comm. in the cat. itself - but would include Garden Suburb type projects when quality relevant article(s) exist (right now, Killester, for example, barely mentions its project, while Marino does). I will fill in the table below, and then I'd consider divvying up this cat across sub-cats. The longer article (MAPPED), now read, is a good base, albeit not aiming to be exhaustive. SeoR (talk) 11:45, 22 October 2021 (UTC)

And back - next set to consider are the "new suburbs" forming around Dublin. If the threshold is the existence of a Masterplan or strong Local Area Plan, this would include Cherrywood (added, even if minor residential as yet), and Clongriffin (in northern Donaghmede) and Belmayne (in southern Balgriffin), even if the plans to date partly failed - there is activity, even if mostly only housing. While Citywest and Park West were originally just business parks, but the former in particular has become a more rounded community, with housing and retail, and the latter at least has substantial accommodation. And we still need to add, I think, Marino (originally wholly a planned garden suburb), and Killester (an old locus / hamlet but really jump-started by the military housing of the Land Trust, even if this is now not even 20% of Killester housing). SeoR (talk) 10:45, 26 October 2021 (UTC)

SeoR this is great work. I kind of like the idea of using this category as somewhat of a holding area before we make a choice of what sub-category it should ultimately live in, or there could be a few borderline cases that can only really stay in this category. Smirkybec (talk) 10:57, 26 October 2021 (UTC)

Thanks Smirkybec, I like the sound of that. I'm just in over a cup of tea now but will get back to populating that table later today. SeoR (talk) 15:35, 26 October 2021 (UTC)

And to all interested: apologies, I had unexpectedly very busy RL, and just managed a few Watchlist-checking logins; I see Smirkybec has added well, and will do some more myself, primarily tomorrow. Once done, this table will enable allocation to sub-categories, which I hope will take any heat out of discussions of this matter. SeoR (talk) 23:50, 30 October 2021 (UTC)

Hi Smirkybec, and Djm-leighpark, I have now completed the table, to a level sufficient to allow carve-up to specific types. Two cases require more study and reference checking, but I think with a little work (reviewing the types, for example), we can have a useful allocation of categories, gathered into this one on a "container-only" basis. It is a tricky title, and not future-relevant, as all locales are not more planning-managed, but it is widespread in academic literature. Sorry this tabulation took a week or so, it was busy in RL, and I was entirely remote for stretches. It's been interesting anyway. SeoR (talk) 15:12, 3 November 2021 (UTC)

For Boyle consider reading [1]. Fairly obviously I've been working at Ballymote history ... and stlll at it ... Ballymote was with MacDermotts, O'Connors, Taffes, even before it was with the Fitzmaurice's then Gore-Booths. I have some original thoughts on to how/why the settlement developed. I think the "old" it is now not part of an estate in the old sense, and wouldn't currently match Estate village in the sense of that article, former estate village might suit better, but I'm not really into these categorization stuff, though I think you've put in an excellent shift. Thanking Bec for her work at Ballymote; even if I fell the planning a tad pointy. Thankyou. Djm-leighpark (talk) 16:53, 3 November 2021 (UTC)

I’ll enjoy the read. Former estate village, maybe that. Glad things move along. Enjoyed the work. More later, coffee grab ends. SeoR (talk) 09:58, 4 November 2021 (UTC)

Maybe Boyle could join Belfast - originally a highly-planned greenfield thing - and Derry... SeoR (talk)

Thanks so much SeoR! So do we want draw up a tentative list of new categories? And with the likes of Estate village, does that need to have the granularity of Estate villages in the Republic of Ireland, or just Estate village at the moment? Smirkybec (talk) 15:05, 4 November 2021 (UTC)

Caught by RL again, a couple of hectic days. Most welcome, it was great learning. I knew most of the places, but knew of this aspect of maybe half the list before, so much more now. I have pulled out a few items to a sub-list, where I think they need discussion. For the rest I suggest the clearest are, after New Town, which already exists: estate village / estate town, Quaker village, garden suburb, planned suburb - and let's consider the rest. Industrial settlement? Planned (non-estate) village? Commune (one case, but probably rates unique cat.)... And I think we should create in Irl/ RoI, leaving upward linking for later, and other hands. Later, SeoR (talk) 13:28, 7 November 2021 (UTC)

And of course a true "planned community" but not just a village - it was planned as a district of farms, with some modest shared facilities - Gaeltacht Rath Chairn... SeoR (talk) 14:06, 7 November 2021 (UTC)

Types of settlement for potential sub-categories

Clear cases

Settlement	County	Key year(s)	Type (and other)	Scale (2016+)	Notes
Abbeyleix	Laois	1790	Estate town	Town (small; urban pop. 1,170)	Previous town (elements from 1183) levelled in a Vesey family project
Adamstown	Fingal (Dublin)	2005-6 restart 2018-20	Planned suburb	Suburb (pop. 3,500)	Target was 25k, still planned for eventually
Adare	Limerick	early 19th C.	Replanned market town	Village + resort (pop. 1,129)	Long-existing settlement replanned by Earls of Dunraven. Heritage town status.
Ardagh	Longford	19th C.	Estate village	Village (small pop., parish substantial)	Planned to Swiss design by Fetherston baronets, multi-award winner
Ballitore	Kildare	from 1707	Quaker village	Village (pop. 793)	-
Ballyhaise	Cavan	18th C.	Industrial settlement	Village (pop. 711)	Redeveloped for the linen industry, which ultimately failed
Ballymote	Sligo	18th C. to 1847	Estate village	Town (small; pop. 1,549)	Incorporates original estate village set out by the Fitzmaurice family for the local linen industry, which failed by the 19th C.
Birr once also Parsonstown	Offaly	1620, 1740s, early 19th C.	Market town	Town (mid-size; urban pop. 4,370)	Strong influence from the Birr Castle Demesne; classical Georgian buildings and structure, Oxmanstown Mall added 19th C.
Blessington	Wicklow	from 1667, then late 18th/early 19th C.	Estate village	Town (mid-size; pop. 5,520)	Built up from estate village; earlier settlement replaced under Royal Charter of 1667 given to Michael Boyle (the younger)
Burtonport	Donegal	late 18th c.	Planned village	Village (pop. 304)	Planned by the Marquess of Conyngham
Castlebellingham	Louth	1666 and later	Estate village	Village (pop. 1,126 incl. wider area)	-
Castlecomer	Kilkenny	1637 and 18th C.	Estate town	Town (small; pop. 1,502)	Laid out to a new town plan
Charlestown	Mayo	mid-19th C.	Estate village	Town (v. small, pop., w/ Bellaghy, 1,033)	Built beside Bellaghy on the initiative of the agent of a local landowner
Cherrywood	Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown (Dublin)	1998, 2018-	Planned suburb	V. small	Began with a business park under local authority and developer masterplans, plans renewed 2015-2018; planned pop. 25-30k
Clara	Offaly	Late 17th and from late 19th C.	Utopian village	Town (mid-size; pop. 3,336)	-
Clongriffin	Dublin city (Dublin)	2005, resumed 2017	Planned suburb	Suburb (pop. 1.5-2k?)	Originally one of at least two districts (with Belmayne) in Dublin City Council's "Northern Fringe" concept; built within the previously new (but unplanned) Donaghmede (as Belmayne was within Balgriffin); stalled but resumed, though still mostly residential
Collon	Louth	18th C.	Industrial settlement	Village (pop. 896)	Two streets laid out for the Foster family (of Dunleer and beyond) and their cotton manufacturing plans
Cootehill	Cavan	1725 to mid-18th C., also 19th C.	Market town	Town (small; pop. 1,853)	-
Doneraile	Cork	from 1728	Estate village	Town (small; pop. 780)	Rebuild of existing village as planned village by St. Legers family
Dugort	Mayo	from 1834	Protestant settlement	Village (very small)	Founded as part of the missionary work of Edward Nangle
Edgeworthstown prev. Mostrim	Longford	Late 18th C.	Estate village?	Town (small; pop. 2,072)	Rebuild of existing village
Enniskerry	Wicklow	1840s	Estate village	Village (area pop., incl. estate, 1,889)	Neo-Tudor styling
Frenchpark or Dungar	Roscommon	-	Estate village?	Village (pop. 454)	-
Inistioge	Kilkenny	18th C.	Estate village	Village (pop. 285)	Some settlement from early and medieval times; charter 1608 - central village square/green built by the Tighe family of Woodstock Estate, C18.
Johnstown	Kildare	-	Estate village	Village (pop. 1,005)	At one end was the entrance to the demesne of the Earls of Mayo. Was tiny - just 101 people from 13 houses in 1837.
Johnstown	Kilkenny	early 1700s & 1760s	Estate village	Village (pop. 444)	Crossroads with a central octagonal plan
Killester	Dublin city	1922	Planned suburb	Suburb (~5,000 in all, Trust housing maybe 1k)	Tiny village of many centuries standing expanded with post-service military settlement from 1922 onwards
Knightstown	Kerry	1840s	Planned village	Village (pop. 243)	Built around infrastructure designed by Alexander Nimmo from 1830, actually constructed 1840s; originally "New Town of Valentia".
Letterfrack	Galway	1845 / 1850s	Planned village (Famine Relief build)	Village	A famine relief programme led by a Quaker family, who became resident 1849
Marino, Dublin	Dublin city	1920s (late) - 1930s	Planned suburb	~5,000	Built on greenfield site between Clontarf, Drumcondra and Donnycarney; boundary with Fairview unclear
Monivea	Galway	1740s	Estate village	Village (pop. 308)	Established by the fFrench family, one of the Tribes of Galway
Mountbellew	Galway	late 18th C.?	Estate village	Town (small; pop. 774)	Founded by the Bellew family
Mountrath	Laois	early 17th C.	Quaker and industrial village	Town (small; pop. 1,774)	Quakers invited to settle there, also cotton mill built there
Mountmellick	Laois	1657	Quaker and industrial village	Town (mid-size; pop. 4,777)	15th century settlement; Quakers invited to settle there, also cotton and wool industries promoted
Moynalty	Meath	1837, early 20th C.	Planned village (Swiss design)	Village (pop. 116)	Built by local landowner Farrell
Muine Bheag or Bagenalstown	Carlow	17th C., 1845+	Planned village	Town (mid-size; pop. 2,837)	Planned by Walter Bagenal, plans abandoned after the construction of the court house, main development happened later
New Birmingham	Tipperary	Early 1800s	Industrial settlement	Village (pop. 481)	Founded by the Hunt family to exploit local coalmines, which failed
Portlaw	Waterford	1825	Industrial settlement	Town (small; pop. 1,742)	Quaker foundation for cotton mills by the Malcolmsons
Prosperous	Kildare	c. 1780	Industrial settlement	Town (small; pop. 2,333)	Founded by Robert Brooke for a failed local cotton industry
Ralahine	Clare	1831 Ceased 1833	Commune	0; little trace	-
Ráth Chairn	Meath	1935	Gaeltacht settlement	Village+ (pop. 447)	Planned move of 443 people from Connemara; forms a Gaeltacht with Baile Ghib
Robertstown	Kildare	18th C.	Planned village	Village (pop. 707)	Built on the Grand Canal
Rosenallis	Laois	17th C.	Quaker village	Village (pop. 440 incl. wider area)	-
Rutland Island	Donegal	1784-5 Fully ceased by 1960s	Planned village	0 pop. (perm.)	Founded around a port, declined rapidly soon after foundation but some occupation continued to the 1960s; recent wave (2000s) of holiday homes
Slane	Meath	post-1790	Planned village	Village (pop. 1,169)	Long-settled place, somewhat reworked, incl. Georgian houses laid out around a central diamond, by a plantation family
Stratford-on-Slaney	Wicklow	1774	Industrial settlement/model town	Village (pop. 241)	Founded by Henry Stratford, to support a (soon failed) textile industry
Strokestown	Roscommon	late 17th century	Estate village	Town (small; pop. 874)	Mahon family, "Heritage Town" designation
Summerhill	Meath	18th C.?	Estate village	Village (pop. 878)	-
Swinford	Mayo	Late 1700s	Planned town	Town (small; pop. 1,394)	Planned work by the Brabazon family
Timahoe	Laois	?	Planned town	Village (pop. 569)	New town built by the Cosbys of Stradbally Hall - planned six-sided star with ruins and market house as focal points, not realised this way
Tyrrellspass	Westmeath	Late 18th C., 1820	Estate village	Village (pop. 483)	Laid out by the Rochfort family
Villierstown	Waterford	1740s	Industrial settlement / planned village	Village (pop. 276)	Established by the Villiers family (Earls Grandison) for a linen industry try, Villiers-Stuarts remaining / returning long after the industry failed
Virginia	Cavan	1620s, 1750s+	Plantation settlement	Town (mid-size; pop. 2,648)	Named for Elizabeth I. Patent 1612, sold, sold again to Baron Killeen, limited dev't 1622-1638, intervention by Bishop Bedell, to Taylo(u)r family c. 1750s, when dev't resumed
Westport	Mayo	1780s	Planned town	Town (mid-size; pop. 6,198)	Original substantial village of c. 700, Cahernamart, moved from before Westport House, to location nearer small existing seaside settlement locale

Unclear cases or where planned aspect is remote or was never fully completed

Settlement	County	Key year(s)	Type (and other)	Scale (2016+)	Notes
Belfast	Antrim / Down	-	-	City	Originally highly planned but little trace of that now, lost within grown city
Boyle	Roscommon	?	-	Town (small; pop. 2,568)	Needs further study - long-settled place, limited data on when or how this was planned
Derry	Londonderry	-	-	City	Originally somewhat planned but little trace of that now, lost within grown city
Tallaght	South Dublin (Dublin)	1960s+	Part-planned suburb	Town (large; 73,000+)	Originally one of three planned "new towns" around Dublin (with Clondalkin and Blanchardstown) - not proceeded with formally but the village core was surrounded by mass housing, and modest local facilities, in waves of development over decades, yielding a city-level population within Dublin's contiguous suburbs
Tulsk	Roscommon	?	-	Village (pop. 241)	This and Boyle need further study - the sources show that this long-settled place fell from a busy town to a struggling village, and I see no planned restoration in the history

Category seems nonsensical

This Category seems nonsensical ... at least to me. The category name seems to imply the settlement to which it applies is a "new town". I assume it is mean to indicate the town has been expanded in a "planned manner" with additional estates. There seems little or no referenced sourcing in the affected articles to indicate why this category has been added ... e.g. Ballymote , Boyle, Charlestown etc. Djm-leighpark (talk) 09:51, 25 October 2021 (UTC)

Djm-leighpark I had added Ballymote and others to this category based on their inclusion in a list of planned communities in Gillian Darley's Villages of Vision (1st edition), The Architectural Press, London, 1975. I created this category as using "Planned community" appeared to be the naming convention for such areas and reading the article it does take in planned communities and conflagrations of all kinds: "any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed on previously undeveloped land." It is not how I would have named it had no such category existed, but I went with the structure already established. As you'll see from above, I'm happy to go more granular on this, separating out estate villages, industrial villages, model villages etc. but I didn't pluck any of this from the air.

Darley lists (and she states it is not comprehensive): Bessbrook, Cushendun, Gracehill, Moy, Bagenalstown, Ballyhaise, Burton Port, Rutland Island, Seaforde, Ballytore, Blessington, Johnstown, Palmerstown, Prosperous, Robertstown, Inistioge, Abbeyleix, Timahoe, Adare, Ardagh, Edgesworthstown, Collon, Castlebellingham, Dugort (Achill Island), Moynalt, Slane, Strokestown, Ballymote, New Birmingham, Sion Mills, Curraghmore, Portlaw, Villierstown, Tyrrells Pass, Coolattin, Enniskerry, Stratford-on-Slaney.

Smirkybec (talk) 11:50, 25 October 2021 (UTC)

When I read (Darley, 1975, isbn 0 85139 705 0, p=151) "Index of People and Places" .... Bagenalstown, Baldersby, Ballytore, Bank Top ... Bourneville, Boyson, Bray, ... Charlotte, Charterville, ... - so no Ballymote, Boyle or Charlestown ? The Gazetter section starting page 137 does claim comprehensiveness for England/Wales but Ireland is with information given personally. Ballymote (Co. Sligo): while not indexed, is described as: estate village belonging to the Gore Booth family; single street with 160 houses. Linen industry failed. No sign of Boyle or Charlestown. For Ballymote I think Samuel Lewis's "A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland" 1837 which seems to provide a better description and would be a more useful source than Darley. I definitely abhor the category name; and it might produce expletives from the natives; don't think it should be used without subcategorisation. Djm-leighpark (talk) 18:50, 25 October 2021 (UTC)

I only had the book out of the library briefly, but I can retrieve it and consult it again. If you looks above you'll see the other 2 references I have used (here and here) - though not in their entirety as some of the inclusions seemed borderline. As said, I'm not wedded to the category, it was what was there already, and I would whole-heartedly welcome sub categories. At the moment at least it serves to further this conversation as their were no such categories or descriptions in use previously (Adamstown was the only Irish conflagration categorised as a planned community of any stripe before I created these two categories for the island of Ireland). Smirkybec (talk) 19:09, 25 October 2021 (UTC)

Djm-leighpark I just re-added Ballymote, as it is listed by Darley on page 149. Smirkybec (talk) 10:16, 30 October 2021 (UTC)

@Smirkybec: I've reverted it. I might accept a subcat. Darley is word of mouth for Ireland and Scotland whatever her utopia stuff's about. Thankyou. Djm-leighpark (talk) 10:40, 30 October 2021 (UTC)

And I would probably start by getting SeoR to add Ballymote to the table above. Whether a community was established to support the castle befoer coming under an estate I have not a clue: but it really needs categories to be tightly defined. If it needs additional categories (former?) post-town, town with railway station, market town might be suitable. the top level category "Planned communities in the Republic of Ireland" is not suitable as can be applied to every town in the Republic of Ireland in some form or another. Thankyou. Djm-leighpark (talk) 10:55, 30 October 2021 (UTC)

Djm-leighpark to be honest I feel like you are being rather unilateral in the decision you are making here. I was pointed to Darley as a good quality source by an academic who specialises in planned communities in Ireland. You used quite divisive language from the outset about this category and not offered any workable alternatives to work being undertaken here. There is currently 46 towns in this category out of the hundreds of towns and villages in Ireland, so your assertion that the category is being misused or applied in unsuitable cases feels unwarranted. Smirkybec (talk) 10:59, 30 October 2021 (UTC)

@Smirkybec: Well in my view you've been rather smirky in imposing this inane top level category across most of Ireland. I've removed it from Boyle as there's no evidence in the article. This probably needs to go to WikiProject Ireland. Subcategorisation might be sensible; but there realy has to be cited evidence in each article or an an article associated with the category. Thankyou. 11:06, 30 October 2021 (UTC)

Djm-leighpark I'm going to ignore your initial comment there, as it is not in anyway productive. Your insistence on sub categories from the jump is quite unhelpful. If you were to look around the existing categories generally, you will see that it is broadly an undeveloped area. Even the UK, which has decent coverage, has a distinct lack of category granularity at this level for villages and smaller towns. The article/list on Estate villages is very neglected with no mention of Irish examples and there is no current even top level category for estate villages, so we are in new and undeveloped territory here. There is an element of walking before we can run. If you wish to take this to WikiProject Ireland for comment, that is your prerogative, many hands make light work which would be more useful that arbitrarily deciding the use of categories based on your own interpretation of the citations provided. Smirkybec (talk) 11:41, 30 October 2021 (UTC)