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FATIMA MANSIONS
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The first brick laid will not be made of concrete. It will be made of respect. It will be cemented by community power. And, it will be laid in our own heads and our hearts.
The second brick will be laid in the heads and hearts of the city council, government departments, funders and supporters
The third brick is as important as the other two. It’s the brick we must lay in our collective imagination.
Joe Donohoe, Chair, Fatima Groups United 2000
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Fatima Mansions is located beside the Grand Canal in Rialto in Dublin’s south west inner city between Dolphins Barn and Inchicore. The estate was built in 1949 and was seen as part of the great inner city solution to inner-city tenement living. But, over the decades poverty, exclusion and the scourge of drugs changed all that.
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Throughout those years residents have had to tackle poverty, neglect and the twin burdens of drugs and demonisation. They have endured some of the worst social and living conditions of any housing estate in the country.
Fatima had the highest unemployment statistics, levels of ill-health, numbers of early school leavers, prison incarcerations, drug users and other negative indicators.
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In the 1980’s the heroin epidemic which first swept through Dublin took root in Fatima feeding on the chronic social conditions that existed and therefore exacerbating them even further.
In response to these massive difficulties Dublin City Council carried out an extensive physical refurbishment project costing IR£6.5 million. This was seen initially as a positive development. Unfortunately recession cutbacks in various government departments resulted in Fatima spiralling back into decline.
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In the mid 1990’s the situation on the ground was at an all time low, the majority of residents were looking to be transferred out. Drugs were openly sold and residents describe it as being ‘like a supermarket’.
It was against this backdrop that a task force was appointed and critically a new grass roots organisation was established to try and make sense of the madness.
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