As every journalist knows, the best way to tell a big story is to go small. Just as the best photographs can tell you everything through the single moment they capture, a good article tackles the biggest themes from an angle, looking for the subject – an anecdote, an observation, an individual – that sheds light on the bigger picture.
This in-depth piece by Conor Gallagher, a reporter in our investigations team, is, strictly speaking, about Buckingham Village, a run-down housing complex in Dublin’s north inner city. But through that narrow frame, what emerges is a much wider story about life in the capital over the past 40 years. It is a story about social deprivation and organised crime, boom-and-bust economics and planning failures, about hope for renewal and the cold reality that follows.
Drawing on planning documents, enforcement data, property folios and company records, along with interviews with residents, activists, elected representatives and gardaí, Gallagher has assembled a history of Buckingham Village over its 3½-decade existence. It’s a remarkable story whose cast includes the criminal property developer Paddy Shanahan, Gerry “the Monk” Hutch, the corrupt council official George Redmond and the gunmen behind the 2016 Regency Hotel attack, described by Gallagher as the most infamous gangland shooting in the State’s history.
The full article can be found here, with a video by Enda O’Dowd and photography by Alan Betson, Chris Maddaloni, Dara Mac Dónaill and Paulo Nunes Dos Santos.
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We have a strong offering across all sections of the site and app this weekend. I was drawn to Europe Correspondent Naomi O’Leary’s fascinating story on Pope Leo’s family secret - a birth in a mother and baby home – and London Correspondent Mark Paul’s report from Slough, an English data centre hub where locals are starting to revolt. That theme of public unease over data centre growth emerges in the latest instalment of our Ipsos B&A opinion poll, which finds that 61 per cent of voters want data centre-building to stop. Majorities of every party’s supporters favour a halt.
The Government’s case for continued construction rests on the claim that data centres are essential if Ireland is to retain its place at the heart of the digital economy and continue to attract the multinational investment on which prosperity depends. “That argument deserves more rigorous scrutiny from the Opposition and from civil society,” our editorial argues. “The poll reveals real and mounting concern. It has yet to produce the kind of grassroots revolt now under way across America, but that may only be a matter of time.”
Family issues feature in various ways in our Opinion section this weekend. Anna Daly writes about the grief she experienced after two miscarriages, a grief that is still not officially acknowledged in the workplace. Rachel O’Dwyer discusses her son’s habitual absences from school and whether they are really a problem. Mark O’Connell considers the phenomenon of anxious parents “stalking” their grown-up children through their phones. And Breda O’Brien questions whether surrogacy should be allowed, even in distressing cases such as Lena Dunham’s.
Elsewhere, Climate and Science Correspondent Caroline O’Doherty writes about the Pacific Ocean’s El Nino weather phenomenon, already reaching new levels of intensity and still growing in power. The ensuing extreme weather is expected to severely disrupt global food and transport systems this winter, and – while Ireland will not feel its force as brutally as some other countries – we are seldom immune from its effects.
Those who worry about extreme weather, and the power outages and other shortages they can cause, might want to consider the Harrison Gardner approach. The Australian self-builder, who lives in Co Clare, is an advocate for self-sufficiency in food, shelter and water. He talks to Rosanna Cooney about how to prepare for the unexpected.
Finally, in the week of U2’s 50th birthday and just days after they performed live on Dublin’s Grafton Street, I’d recommend you listen to Drummer Seeks Musicians, a superb three-part podcast series by Róisín Ingle about the origin story of one of the biggest bands on the planet. You can also read Róisín’s interview with Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen jnr.
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