The Ursuline College, Sligo

Classroom with Blue Paint

Derelict classroom in the Scoil Aine building

In 2006 the Ursuline College in Sligo sold some of its school buildings.  This included the convent, Scoil Aine and the gatehouse.  The Department of Education was not interested in purchasing these buildings and instead a developer bought them.  Planning permission has been given to convert the buildings into a nursing home.  There is no sign of any work starting and two of the buildings have become derelict.  
The following pictures show the derelict school and gatehouse building.

Peeling Paint

View from the Ledge

Keep our Tabby in!

Art Room

BB Gun

Transition Year Project

Gatehouse and Scoil Aine

Ransacked Gate House

Socks drying over the range

Sewing Box

Elphin Diocesan pilgrimmage to Lourdes, 1932

Raffle Tickets

Family Cards

Pin cushion

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Jesus with a Shizzer

Jesus with a Shizzer, a photo by Derelict Nation on Flickr.

Photograph from the derelict part of the Ursuline College, Sligo.

Empty World – Avena Developments, Ballisodare. Sligo

Houses for Sale

Avena Developments Ghost Estate

The Avena Development was completed in the late noughties.  It is an extensive housing estate in the middle of Ballisodare.  It  runs parallel to the Main Street.  It comprises a variety of houses, apartments, retail facilities and a leisure complex.  The development takes up a large area of the village of Ballisodare.

Empty Riverside Apartments

While the leisure complex and some shops have a thriving business, to date only a handful of houses have been sold within the development.   Most inhabited properties are on the same street, however there is a lone occupied house in a sea of empty ones in the centre of the estate.

Centre of estate - only one house occupied

A visit to the estate is an unnerving experience.  It is a world devoid a people, an empty world.  As I passed an occupied house a small child waved to me out of a window.  I wonder what it will be like to grow up in a place where there are no neighbours and no other children to play with.

Unfinished shop on occupied street

Abandoned building site

At the edge of the estate buildings are unfinished and there is rubble and dangerous building debris all around.  Occupied houses look out onto the abandoned building site.  It is reminicent of news footage of lands affected by war or natural disaster; it makes us question why people should be forced to live like this. 

Ornate lamp post stolen from an occupied street

Entrance into ghost estate with ornate lamp post

There is evidence of the beginnings of petty crime and vandalism around the development.  Ornate iron lamposts have been cut down and taken, this has even happened in the small amount of occupied areas.  This has left the estate in darkness at night, though recently the local council have installed new lamp posts. Though the development is currently in a good condition, while is remains mostly empty it is likely that it will deteriorate.

Reflected hopes and dreams

In a derelict shop a billboard sits against an unfinished wall.  It says "Dream of having a Home with a Swimming Pool and Leisure Centre".  This was the dream for residential living in Ballisodare.  The reality is that a number of ghost developments within the village have left it with a vacancy rate of 30% (2009). Ballisodare has a small population of 1311; it is a small village that has had its character destroyed by speculative retail and commercial development that grossly over-estimated that its population would need it.

View onto empty estate from derelict shop

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The Demise of the Roadside Cottage

Mantlepiece with Tea Towels

The roadside cottage is an historic feature of Ireland.  Often associated with a romantic view of a rural picturesque idyll, this idealised view is now outdated.  The roadside cottage is in decline.   Though some of these dwellings are inhabited, for the most part roadside homes have become abandoned and derelict. 

Bedroom with carpet plants

Roadside cottages are usually made up of three small rooms with a small flat roof extension on the rear.  As these spaces become empty they are rarely given new inhabitants.  There are two reasons for this; the first being that they are too near roads that have now become extremely busy.  The second reason is that they are too small to meet contemporary living standards.   Modern housing is built further away from the road and has become increasingly larger.  In some cases the floor space of the roadside cottage can be smaller than the living room of a modern house.  

Kitchen

Roadside cottages are often invisible within the local community.  With boarded windows and flaking paint, people would rather not look at them.  The interior of these spaces have often been left intact.  While nothing of worth remains, it is often disturbing to see the personal effects that are left behind.  Shoes sit waiting for an owner who will never come back, a biscuit tin holds odds and ends, a picture of Jesus looks into an empty room.

Ladies Shoes

Jacob's Biscuits

Jesus Waiting

These spaces are suspended in time and space.  As life moves by outside, inside, apart from the inevitable decay, things are very still.  The interiors of derelict cottages chronicle a way of living that is now lost.  The inhabitants must have been elderly and what is most unnerving is the thought that these people have probably now passed on.  It is saddening to see that their treasured possessions remain; this acts to remind us of the impermanence of life.  

Commode and Chair

Family photograph

It is often possible to date when a dwelling became empty by checking dates on cartons of milk and on newspapers.  In one derelict space I photographed nobody had been in there since 1997.  It took a hour to get through the brambles to the open back door. 

Tea and Coffee from the 90's

These spaces are museums of bereaved and abandoned objects.  They are a valuable resource because they show a pre-boom way of living that will never be repeated. 

Souvenir of Knock

Bread Bin

Shaver

Horseshoe with Fly

10 year old toothbrush

 It is important to record and document these museums because at some point in the future they will no longer be around to show us a forgotten way of life.  The roadside cottages shown here are all in north Co. Sligo.
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Dream Home

Dream Home

I found this example of Celtic Tiger dereliction quite by accident.  I had planned to visit another house and when looking for a parking space, stumbled upon this one.   Sitting in the car with a friend, the two of us were a mirror image of eachother - jaws dropped to the floor.

Grand Entrance

Welcome

The house has 3 floors; the ground floor consists mostly of double garages, laundry and staircase.  The first floor is very grand.  Its main feature is a beautifully crafted wooden staircase.
Wood is a feature throughout the house.  Ceilings and walls and floors are panelled with wood; most of the wall panelling has been ripped out.

Wooden Staircase

There is a grand window looking out from the landing area, this has been smashed, as has every other window in the building.  On the second floor there is an antique stained glass church window, inlaid into a wall.  This has also been vandalised.

Picture Window

Antique stained glass window with chest of draws

The kitchen and living area also reflect the high level of finish in this dream home.  In the kitchen the worktops are granite and the dining area sits in an overhanging window.  The living area has views of the surrounding countryside.  A door off the living room leads outside into a raised decking platform. 

Window with granite worktop

This domestic luxury  is contrasted with its vandalism.  It is obvious that a highly organised gang has broken in and stolen all they can take.  All over the house walls and floors have been ripped out in the search for copper piping.  This gang knew exactly where to look.
The vandalism is causing water damage.  In the living area a large bag of water hangs suspended from the ceiling.  On our second visit this bag was in the process of bursting.  Water had flooded the living area and was seeping through the walls into surrounding rooms.

Study with water bubble

A calendar on the wall suggests that the house was vacated in early 2009.  The vandalism seems much more recent.  At present the house is in good condition.  Though if its is left in its current state it will deteriorate fast.
It is tempting when seeing a house left like this to think about taking something.  It is smashed up and open to the elements and further petty vandalism.  Its features will probably get completely destroyed by vandalism.  This house does belong to somebody though.  It was somebody's home and it is likely that the owners are still paying for it.  This home was somebody's dream, and that dream is being destroyed.  I would not like to be part of its further destruction.

Box of family photos

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