Migration Patterns in Dublin Co. Borough. ESRI Memorandum Series No. 95 1970

Johnson, N. (1970) Migration Patterns in Dublin Co. Borough. ESRI Memorandum Series No. 95 1970. [Policy Paper]

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Abstract

Urban ecologists describe the usual process of a city's growth in terms of a centrifugal process. The continuous pressure of migrant population on central city accommodation causes the residents to move to the periphery of the city in order to escape the encroaching slums. This process of invasion and succession continues with the areas of overcrowding becoming more widespread and the built up area more extensive as more residents have to move further out to a salubrious environment. The spatial expansion of Dublin, began in the middle of the nineteenth century. "Nearly all the expansion was upper to middle class residential: as the slum families, housed in georgian times in mud-huts and 'weavers' houses', slowly moved into the grand streets of the north side, the professional classes moved out to Ballsbridge, Raneiagh and Rathmines." However, the decrease in tram and rail fares at the turn of the century opened up the townlands and suburbs to the lower middle c1asses and since 1900, the city boundaries have been extended four times to take account of the large increases in this urban population. In the last fifteen years, since the introduction of the first Economic Programme with its increased investment and employment for the city, and concomitant surge in public and private house building, the surrounding countryside has been transformed "by 'estates' of middle class villas."

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