The potential return of residents to Dublin’s Henry Street is “exactly the direction that the city needs to be going”, a professor of sociology at Maynooth University has said. 

Plans have been submitted to Dublin City Council seeking permission to develop a number of unused floors above shops on the street. 

If approved, it would mean the return of residents to the inner city street for the first time in decades and Professor Mary Corcoran believes the plan is exactly what Dublin needs.  

“I was really excited to be perfectly frank,” she told The Pat Kenny Show.  

“I think it’s wonderful; I think it’s exactly the direction that the city needs to be going. 

“I think we’ve learnt a massive amount of lessons since COVID in terms of what are the real needs of people living in a world in which we are overshadowed by the challenges of climate change. 

“There’s some really interesting work out there now that shows [that] rather than continuing with suburban sprawl that we begin to think about how we can rethink and reimagine our cities. 

“I think this is a very good example of that.” 

FB2050 Tourism Office in the Henry Street and Spire Monument in the background, Dublin, Ireland

In a survey she carried out some years ago, Irish people expressed a strong preference for a garden but Professor Corcoran believes that a “mind shift [is] required on behalf of Irish people”. 

“Green spaces in suburban areas can be really functional spaces,” she said. 

“But what we need to do is think about, ‘Well, let’s give up the front and back garden and move to a different kind of shared space.’” 

Another concept she admires is that of a ‘15 minute city’ - where planners ensure that as many key services as possible are located within a 15 minute walk or cycle.

“I think the introduction during COVID of 2km and 5km walk limits, people actually began to discover their neighbourhoods and discover what was around and realise they actually have some agency through walkability to cyclability,” she said. 

“That’s why this idea of the 15 minute city developed by Carlos Marino in 2016… has actually really started to resonate amongst city governments right throughout the world.” 

Under the Housing For All policy, the Government aims to build on average 33,000 housing units a year by the end of the decade.

Main image: Henry Street. Picture by: Alamy.com