DonabatePortrane.net

Hello All

I have just gone Sale Agreed, on a house in Donabate, we are very excited and looking forward to moving into our new home.

I have been to Donabate on several occasions and really love the area however unfortunately everything on this community board and social media is extremely negative and I am getting slightly worried.

To summarise, my understanding is that

- Traffic is horrendous, roads need to be widened & additional slip road to M1 needs to be introduced
- Too many construction vehicles causing danger for cyclists and pedestrians.
- Few facilities, No Garda Station & limited schools.
- No bus service & lack of trains for commuters.

I have 2 questions to current residents

1) Is the negativity I read over the top?
2) would you move to Donabate in 2018?

Any advice would be much appreciated

1. Yep. Way over the top.
2. Yes.


I wouldn't worry about the stuff you read on message boards or social media. Most of it is nonsense. It's true that construction traffic is causing a problem but that's only temporary. And there's no doubt that the council need to sort out the Hearse Road issue as it's a very narrow road serving what is likely to become a town of 20,000+ population in the coming years. But this is stuff that will be dealt with eventually. The trains are actually ok. You do hear complaints about crowding on the 8.15 but as someone who has experienced rush hour in Singapore, Berlin and Hong kong, I can confirm that even the 8.15 is only a minor inconvenience.

The 'problems', such as they are, in Donabate are minor and are heavily outweighed by the advantages of living here.

Hi Brian, congratulations on going 'sale agreed' on your house. I personally still think Donabate is a great place to live and, though there are (like in any growing place) things to iron out, I wouldn't be at all worried. There's no question that the amenities/services on the peninsula are lagging behind development - there's an onus on us to not let that go unaddressed (which is certainly happening to some degree).

- I pass through the village at different times up to ten times a day. Traffic is sometimes moderately bad and, very occasionally, really bad. School drop-off/collection times are the worst and if there's a stop/go on Portrane Rd. But certainly no worse than Malahide or other nearby towns/suburbs. We just had it particularly good in the past because the peninsula isn't a through-road to anywhere.
- The construction vehicles are numerous but you get used to them. The roads are particularly dirty because of construction. See it as an opportunity to build a relationship with your local car wash or weekend exercise with the sponges and buckets!
- There are adequate number of school places now - the question is what future population growth will mean. I personally think there's no need for a Garda station on the peninsula. But many disagree.
- At commuting times, you'll nearly always stand on the train but so do those getting on at the stations around us, other than Dart-users in Malahide. More trains and carriages would be a help.

Is the negativity over the top? I think it can be a bit unbalanced because the really good stuff on the peninsula (Newbridge Park, beach, community centre, community spirit, lack of social-circle bias against blow-ins (we're all blow ins!), great primary schools, well-run sports clubs, Romayo's ) doesn't necessarily come up when development is being discussed.

Would I move to Donabate? In a heartbeat.

Other opinions are available...

It's the lack of infrastructure and the amount of social housing that I think concern people.
With a small population taking over a cyclist on the Hearse Road is easy as there is not much traffic coming the other side but with a large population, it is much more difficult. There's a million other things that seem like common sense but they are not happening. Seems like there is so much pressure on government to build houses. Infrastructure will be an after thought.

Been here 7 years now and yes we'd move here again if we were looking. The way I see it is people want to protect the things they like about Donabate and they are starting to stand up and fight for them. Not a bad thing and it's good to see a bit of community spirit. It seemed to me that there was the original Community spirit here in Donabate but now the newbies are joining in to it. Can only be a good thing. One thing I would say is if you have kids get their names down quick smart the schools are either full or at near capacity. Best of luck whatever you decide.

Wouldn't live anywhere else. We have issues at the moment, but we're working through them.

With the beach and Newbridge Demesne on your doorstep, there's nowhere better in Dublin.

Brian you took the words right out of my mouth!
I also bought a house in Donabate hoping to move in next few months and the amount of negativity has me seriously worried.
Its good to see positives being written here though

Agree with you there Ken.

Positives of living here far outweigh negatives.

Been here since 2003, no where else I'd want to live.

Moved to Donabate in 2013. Locals very friendly and helpful. Great community spirit. Advantages far outweigh disadvantages. Lovely place to live. Lots of construction work going on, which explains traffic jams in and out of the village during the day week.

If they had put the road in first, most of the anger would not be seen.

Still we have seemingly unaccountable bureaucrats in this county making an arse of planning.

I’m more than happy to have moved to Donabate and wouldn’t move out of it.

Still, the ground breaking ceremony got priority before Christmas so representatives could get their mugs in the paper. Still no sign of any actual construction.

Vlad the Impaler wrote:If they had put the road in first, most of the anger would not be seen.

Still we have seemingly unaccountable bureaucrats in this county making an arse of planning.

I’m more than happy to have moved to Donabate and wouldn’t move out of it.

The distributor road is only to open up more land for development. Unfortunately it has been downgraded from a dual to a single carriage way and it comes out way to early at the Hearse Road meaning that road will become even more problematic.

lived here for 15 years and really love the place. the community spirit is great. lots for the kids to do and there is relatively low crime considering the guards are only in the village on a reactionary basis most of the time.

however......
i see us as a dumping ground for the governments, and subsequently Fingal Councils problems. they are under pressue to build houses and Donabate, with 1 road in and out, are getting a significantly disproportionate amount of them.
What other town in Ireland is planned to increase it's population by 120%. And to do that without any significant investment in infrastructure. Sure, the LAP promises this and that, but in reality most of it wont get built.
Schools are pretty much full already with some small exceptions.

My concern is for the medium term future. I believe we are going to have some serious anti-social problems when the doubling of our population along with the lack of infrastructure occurs. The significant provision of social housing, particularly concetrated in the one area/estate will also cause problems. Yes it's not the done thing to say that but history shows this to be the case in many places.

If I were looking to buy a house again, I would most definately not choose Donabate. But only because of the worry I have for the future. If you were just renting here for a few years I would say yes go for it. But I certainly wouldn't be buying here for long term living.

Thank you all for providing your experience and advice. It is very evident & comforting the pride people have for the peninsula.

Our fears have been largely put to rest and the comments have been very reassuring. We would be of the opinion the positives far outweigh the negatives.

Much appreciated
Brian

Bought a place in Donabate two years ago after renting in Portmarnock for a few years. An absolutely beautiful area to live in, spectacular beach and the beautiful cliff walk around Portrane are as good as any in Dublin. Would definitely move back to Donabate in a heartbeat were we to do it all over again. I commute to Sydney Parade every day and have no qualms with the train, busy yes, but I'd certainly agree with jack white having lived with commuting in Singapore and Hong Kong!

Bought here a year ago but lived in the area 15 years ago and came back.
I'm happy.
Would have concerns as to the future, the increase in the size of the town with little or no infrastructural forethought is undoubtedly scary. Read Garda station, roads, huge council estates instead of integrated.
When you read about anti-social behaviour it generally means groups of teenagers around supervalu or the train station. Sometimes especially around the train station the sense is things might be about to kick off or can be aggressive, but I will say that has died down a lot over the past months... summer might bring it back.
There are more serious incidents and nobody should downplay the effect this has on the innocent people involved, which is sometimes lost on others posting here, but its not very frequent. FYI I moved here from a rougher part of Dublin as it was getting very scary and this was a serious concern for me at the time but I've never felt any way near as uncomfortable in Donabate as I did.
Trains aren't that bad, 8:15 is becoming a monster again as it was donkeys years ago but others are ok.
Newbridge is great to have on your doorstep... please god don't let them mess that up as an amenity.
Best of luck with the place, if you've lived anywhere on the northside outside of the very affluent areas I don't think this is going to be any worries for ya.

LOL I moved to Donabate over 10 years ago and I used to read the old forum on donabateportrane.com and freaked out about people saying they had to "defend their property with a bat" like it was a scene from Mad Max. I need not have worried. It's quiet here.

I think it's a fine area - becoming more crowded and Fingal's "planning" leaves a lot to be desired but go over to Ashbourne or down to Greystones and you'll see some pretty awful development there too. It's not a problem unique to Donabate. There is a lot going on at the moment, but that's temporary. I think it has a good balance of things - the big downside for me is while it's a really nice community of people here, the village is a bit underwhelming. Hopefully it'll catch up with the size of the population.

Just to say thanks for this thread.

We have been renting in Malahide the last ten years, always with the view to buying but now we can buy we have been priced out of it, so have a deposit on a house in donabate. It means moving children from schools etc so all the negative feedback on this forum had me very nervous, but this has put my mind at ease.

Thanks

We bought out here in Portrane just under 2 years ago and have never regretted the decision.

We were renting in Clontarf for about 6 years before this and TBH, never really got the same sense of community there as we have in a much shorter timeframe here on the Peninsula: affluent areas may have amenities but the people may not be as friendly or welcoming.

Yes, the lack of planning for the area from FCC is worrying but having worked with other sections of the council, I believe it'll get there in the end, and no doubt with help from the SPDD group. The existence of such groups and indeed these forums (and the Whatsapp Groups and the likes on Facebook) demonstrate a community that cares about their area and it shows. As numbers of residents increase, it's a safe bet we'll see the village centre develop and, hopefully, becoming a vibrant home to local businesses.

Hiya
We moved to Donabate nearly 18 months ago and love it.

Seems to be a bit of a clique with hearts in right place trying to protect the village but can sometimes be a bit much or spark arguements. We stopped following the social media pages and feel a lot better for it!

The WhatsApp group is a mixed blessing, good for alerts but can freak you out about every 'dodgy looking' person spotted in the village, especially if you're off at work when the message comes in.

Teenagers seem to get a hard rap - there's a few local troublemakers, and some of the estates do seem to have gangs of kids that like to throw stuff at cars but I don't think it's worse than anywhere else I've lived. In general they're very polite and/or ignore people (I think you become invisible to them when you hit 30).
The worst of the teenager issues is imported - when the good weather comes, so do the youths from other towns, coming in on the trains for a scrap.

If you're commuting to Dublin during rush hour, I recommend hopping off train at Malahide and getting a seat on the dart into Dublin, much more comfortable. I did this for the first year.

I drive now, leaving around 8.15am - takes about 10 - 15 mins to get to swords roundabout from the library. I don't really notice any traffic coming home at 5.30/6pm (again, not compared to what you'll have seen in Dublin suburbs). Work hours also means I don't see any school traffic or construction traffic, so i wouldn't even see most of the issues you're hearing about. If you're home during the day or work shorter hours, your experience will be different to mine though.