Fatima Mansions is an extensive

public housing Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, de ...

complex located in Rialto, Dublin. In the early 21st century, it underwent a substantial

urban renewal Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of bligh ...

programme with the assistance of public and private funding. All existing apartment blocks were demolished to make way for 600 accommodation units, consisting of social, affordable and private housing along with community, business and leisure facilities at a cost of €200 million. The blocks have since been renamed Herberton Apartments, but the area is still referred to locally as Fatima, which is the name of the adjacent Luas Red Line tram stop.

History

Work on the original complex started before World War II under the direction of

Dublin Corporation Dublin Corporation (), known by generations of Dubliners simply as ''The Corpo'', is the former name of the city government and its administrative organisation in Dublin since the 1100s. Significantly re-structured in 1660-1661, even more sign ...

(now

Dublin City Council Dublin City Council ( ga, Comhairle Cathrach Bhaile Átha Cliath) is the authority responsible for local government in the city of Dublin in Ireland. As a city council, it is governed by the Local Government Act 2001. Until 2001, the council wa ...

) but construction was held up due to material shortages. The first phase of construction was finally completed after the war and the first tenants began to move in during 1947: the development consisted of fifteen blocks, each of four floors in height. They replaced

tenement A tenement is a type of building shared by multiple dwellings, typically with flats or apartments on each floor and with shared entrance stairway access. They are common on the British Isles, particularly in Scotland. In the medieval Old Town, i ...

housing for the area's working-class residents, and provided a great improvement in living conditions. In the mid 1980s the area became notorious for its high levels of

heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a potent opioid mainly used as a recreational drug for its euphoric effects. Medical grade diamorphine is used as a pure hydrochloride salt. Various white and brown ...

use and drug dealing, which eventually led to the original complex's demolition due to the drug problem's severity.

The Fatima Mansions The Fatima Mansions were an Irish rock band formed in 1988 by Cork singer/keyboardist Cathal Coughlan, formerly of Microdisney. Career The original line-up consisted of Coughlan, Nick Allum, Jonathan Fell, Zac Woolhouse and Aindrias O'Gruama ...

were an Irish art rock group named after the flats. Speaking in 2021, lead singer of the band Cathal Coughlan agreed that he had a "pang of guilt" for calling the band Fatima Mansions and said that the name of the band was "emphatically not poking fun at poor social conditions that were being foisted upon people in inner-city Dublin".

References

Buildings and structures in Dublin (city) {{Ireland-struct-stub