This article is part of Ireland’s Changing Suburbs, an Irish Times series exploring our fast-growing new towns, changing older neighbourhoods, and shrinking rural landscapes. See also: Fintan O’Toole on ‘the commodification of Crumlin’
“Glanmire was a rural village when we moved here in 1991,” says Liam Murphy, co-owner of The Brook Inn in Glanmire. “For us it was very affordable. We paid £57,500 for a four-bedroom detached house. Back then, it was very parochial, very small. Everyone knew everyone else. Barry’s Shop was a grocery that sold everything, with a butcher’s beside it, and the post office was a couple of doors down. When we arrived, it really started mushrooming out, with new estates being built.”
Glanmire is the townland umbrella name for a cluster of tiny settlements not far from what passing commuters know as the Dunkettle Interchange, some 6km from Cork City. There’s Glanmire itself, Riverstown, Sallybrook, and Brooklodge. Collectively, they are known as “Glanmire”. In 2019, local government boundaries in Cork were amended to facilitate the city’s growth. Glanmire’s local authority changed from Cork County Council to Cork City Council. This amendment in effect meant that Glanmire now became a suburb of Cork City.
But what does living in Glanmire feel like to those who settled there in the days when it was in fact, a village outside a city, rather than a new suburb of the city that has come out to meet it?
RM Block
Eleanor O’Kelly Lynch, Cynthia Kelleher and Ger Sheehan are all members of the Glanmire Area Community Association. They moved to Glanmire 40, 43 and 38 years ago respectively, for personal and work reasons.
“I picked Glanmire because it was on the Dublin Road, and on the way home. And property was cheaper here,” says Sheehan. Single at the time, she bought her three-bed semi-D off the plans for €42,900. “The same house is now about €450,000.”
“It was a country village when I moved here,” says Kelleher.
“But they had already begun to build estates 40 years ago,” says O’Kelly Lynch. “There was a gradual move from quiet rural village to becoming bigger village, with more estates and more facilities. The change has been gradual. But 20 years ago, Glanmire seemed to be like a building site; there was so much building, and so many estates – Oakfield, Glen Richmond, Heather View, Copper Valley. Then we got a SuperValu versus a Centra. That then [Crestfield/Hazelwood] became our very inadequate town square, and the closest we will ever have to a town centre.
“The growth crept up, and it’s only now you realise how much it has grown,” Sheehan says.
I ask them for their definition of a suburb.
“It’s an extension of the city but I don’t think we are connected to the city,” says Kelleher. “The bus service has improved a bit but it is still not great.”
“For me what makes Glanmire feel less like a suburb is that the dual carriage is a physical separation from the city,” says O’Kelly Lynch. “You never would walk to Cork City from Glanmire like you might to Douglas. I still think we are a village, without it feeling like a village.”
“I don’t think of myself as being part of the city,” says Kelleher. “But I think younger people moving here think of Glanmire now as a suburb.”
Do they go into Cork City much?
“About once a month,” says Sheehan. “I go to restaurants, but not to shop. I’ll go to Mahon’s Point or Midleton. For other things, like haircuts, I stay local. I think the people living in Glanmire longest really make a conscious effort to go to local coffee shops and hair salons.”
Parts of Glanmire do feel distinctly rural in the two days I spend driving around there. There is a beautiful verdant drive that runs along the entrance to the Vienna Woods Hotel, overlooking the Glashaboy river, and hills covered in forest. There are still the enduring bones of vernacular architecture scattered along the ribbon development that Glanmire has evolved into. And the Barn Gastropub at Lota More overlooks an idyllic pastoral view of undulating fields, where cows sometimes graze.
“Did you know that Europe’s most westerly Alpine region is around the Vienna Woods hotel?” Abina Leahy of the Barn tells me.
Leahy was born in the cottage of the site of the now gastropub, and recalls road bowling being played at the nearby crossroads when she was a child. In 1980, the family home was turned into a small restaurant, and continued to grow and develop over time. It’s now run by Chris and Paul Dolan, niece and nephew of Leahy.
“We might be called a suburb now, but we must be the only suburb in Cork without street lighting on all the streets,” Chris Dolan says.
“I think Glanmire still feels very rural,” says Paul Dolan.
I ask how often they go into Cork City.
“Twice a month; once a month,” Chris Dolan says. “I ask myself, do I go into Eason to get that book or do I order it on Amazon? The internet has changed suburban living. I’d go in to go to the theatre.”
Does Glanmire have a centre?
“Ryan’s SuperValu,” he says. “There’s a little shopping centre that became a hub.”
I discover that some people call the cluster of businesses alongside the anchor SuperValu premises the Crestfield Centre, and others refer to it as the Hazelwood Centre. This small commercial area is bisected by a river. When I visit, there is ongoing council work to address flooding. The businesses include a charity shop, a pharmacy, salon, a fast-food restaurant, butcher, a dental practice, and Joe Organ’s estate agency.
Organ has lived in Glanmire for more than 30 years. “Back then, the main road to Dublin was through Glanmire. For the first five years of living here, the main route out was to Fermoy and Dublin, until the bypass opened,” he says.
“We were lucky that we never had any ghost estates here. Construction stopped in 2007, and didn’t start again until 2014. The market has now recovered. There are a lot of new developments here.”
Currently, a three bed semi in Glanmire is €350,000. “It would be about €50,000 less than Douglas or Ballincollig. We would be a little bit price-wise more attractive than some of the south suburbs.” Organ is noting from inquiries for properties that plenty of younger people are interested in living in Glanmire.
“We have Lidl and Aldi now, and a bus service every 15 minutes that runs into Cork. The roadworks are coming to an end, and we will have enhanced cycling lanes here.”
Organ predicts that any further development will include “some apartment living for the older generation, with possibly gated accommodation. I think downsizing is the way things will go in the future here.”
When Liam Murphy of the Brook Inn moved to Glanmire in 1991, there were five small estates and a scattering of one-off housing. “One of the estates at the moment in the process of being built will have 750 houses. There is planning for 180 houses behind that again. Even in our own estate now, we wouldn’t feel like we would know everybody.”
Murphy has noted that public services have become much more prompt since Glanmire became part of Cork City Council. “Bus services have got much better. If anything happens, like a tree down, or something in the river, they are out fast. They fix potholes. Stuff like that. It’s much easier to get things done.”
On the day I am in Glanmire, an interviewee texts me the news that construction will finally begin on a long planned 3,300 square metre primary care centre. This will be a significant addition to its existing services.
Anne Cussen, Adah Lynch, and Angela O’Sullivan all started working together when Glanmire Community College opened in 1997. There are now close to 1,200 students, and a staff of 130 in the school.
“When we started here, it felt more like a country school, not a city school,” Lynch, an art teacher, says. “Farming was a big theme in students’ artwork. Did we even have anyone from outside Ireland? We might have had a couple of students from England and that would be it. We are much more culturally diverse now.”
There’s a pause when Cussen goes to check how many nationalities are now represented in the school. “Thirty-seven,” she says. “Back in 1997, Glanmire was a sleepy village, with green fields all around.”
“The word village is gone a long time from Glanmire now,” says O’Sullivan.
Although there are several estates not far from the school, the staff report that few students cycle to school. “They are dropped off in the car, sometimes even when they live within walking distance.”
What do they think Glanmire will look like in 20 years?
“I can’t see the development stopping,” says O’Sullivan. “But I don’t think it will ever be part of the city; there are not enough services.”
“I think by then, it will be completely joined up to the city,” says Lynch.
