Shabby chic streets, cosmopolitan residents and an ‘old Dublin’ setting make Dublin 8 different and attractive for many gays

Figures released by the General Register Office show that more than half of those civilly partnered live in Dublin, and among those the majority have addresses in Dublin 8. *

The area’s edgy cosmopolitan vibe is attracting gay residents.

Encompassing sometimes shabby and sometimes chic neighbourhoods from Portobello to Dolphin’s Barn, from Inchicore to Christchurch, this postal code is nothing if not colourful. Home to two cathedrals, the Dublin Mosque, the Irish Jewish Museum, a brewery and some of the most deprived social housing schemes in Europe, these are streets of every social class, colour and creed.

It’s this mix that Jim Maguire likes so much. “It’s much more cosmopolitan and it’s much more multicultural,” says the Rehoboth Place resident. On an almost secret street with a near hidden entrance off South Circular Road, Maguire lives here with Philip Cohen. The couple, together since 2006, celebrated their civil partnership in May.

“The key words are ‘comfortable’ and ‘cosmopolitan’,” says Cohen. “We wouldn’t feel comfortable in say, Terenure. It’s a very nice area with very nice houses and it’s very safe, but it’s not us, it’s not gay people. This street is full of all sorts of different households. We fit in because everybody is different.”

Living on the edge of the city centre, the pair have their pick of theatres, cinemas and restaurants. “We don’t have kids, we don’t have to eat at certain times; we can be spontaneous. Living here suits us,” says Maguire. Taking the Luas to his communications job near the O2, while Cohen, head of library services at DIT walks to work, they don’t use a car and simply rent one when they need it.

Maguire bought the house before he emigrated in the 1980s. Built in 1892, he says the street itself dates from 17th century when a rich merchant built homes for his family.

Living abroad for 20 years, Maguire returned in 2003. “It seemed like a good time to move back. The country I had left had been transformed. I came back to this place where you walked down the street and people were speaking Spanish and Polish and it was perfectly normal. That didn’t exist before.”

Working with Paris-based Irish architect Patrick Mellet, Maguire gutted the house and made it his own. Independent TD Mick Wallace was his builder. “When I came home, I couldn’t find things like interesting sinks, or taps or lamps. Everything is sourced from abroad; we came home from Paris with two 40ft containers of furniture.”

The resulting almost gallery-like space, with polished industrial flooring in the main reception room, is stark. “When you walk through the front door, you don’t expect this. The other reaction is, ‘it’s very impressive, but I couldn’t live in it’. For some it’s too stark. I wanted straight lines and curved furniture. I wanted the colour to be on the walls – I like buying paintings and I wanted somewhere to show them off. This allows me to do that.”

The only concession to curves is a Milanese gun-metal grey couch that twists into a myriad of new forms. The curtain and blind-free windows, subtly mirrored on the outside, give light and privacy while providing an unobstructed view of the theatre on the street. “Very often people come by and touch up their make-up in the reflection,” says Maguire.

Only after renovations were complete did Maguire meet Cohen. “This is Jim’s house,” says Cohen. “I’m very conscious that I moved into Jim’s house.” And so an architect has been commissioned to adapt the space to better reflect both tastes – plans include a new kitchen, a study for Cohen and the landscaping of their 90ft garden.

But whatever about the interiors, Dublin 8, with its rough and its smooth, is home.

“There is something mono-cultural about middle-class Dublin,” says Maguire. “And also I think if you don’t have children and you don’t have school runs, it’s very difficult to integrate into all of that. I like that there are people walking by here in Asian dress or speaking different languages. I love all that. This is home.”

Dublin 8 is also home to Nathalie Weadick and Carla Killeen. The couple share a rented home on Emerald Square, just off Cork Street. They are seeking a place to buy and redesign or even a site on which to build, also in Dublin 8.

“I think people in this area are more open, more relaxed,” says Killeen. “Everybody lets everybody do their own thing.”

Weadick, a director of the Irish Architecture Foundation and a board member of Gay and Lesbian Equality Network, thinks Dublin 8 is not just attractive to gay people but to those different in lots of ways. “Around Christchurch is the first Dublin settlement but it’s also where new communities have chosen to settle – Muslim families, the Jewish community, but alongside that there’s ‘old Dublin’.”

“Unlike say Dublin 4, over time Dublin 8 has been renewed. It’s always changing, it’s always fluid, whereas Dublin 4 is what it is. It’s very white, very middle-class.”

Designed by Killeen’s friend architect Luke Wojtaskiewicz, he transformed the traditional two-up, two-down house they rent by adding a contemporary open-plan kitchen and living area, another bedroom/study and a bathroom

“It’s like a tardis,” says Weadick. “From the front of the house, it doesn’t look like a contemporary house, but when you walk in it was a revelation.” The pair are also tickled by the fact that beyond the spacious garden to the rear was a knicker factory.

Loving the peace and neighbourliness of the square, they are also struck by the number of design related enterprises rooted in their postcode including architects, framers, the National College of Art and Design, the Irish Museum of Modern Art and design collective, Fumbally Exchange. Killeen has co-founded her own design business, Catalyst DNA on Harrington Street here too.

Weadick doesn’t think it’s necessarily gay people who have brought the creativity to Dublin 8. “That just happens when neighbourhoods are open to diversity, and some neighbourhoods aren’t.” Meanwhile the search is on for a site around Dublin 8,” says Weadick. “It’s gritty and it’s not manicured and I love that.”

* This article was edited on November 1st, 2012, to correct a factual error.