‘It’ll be nice when it’s a proper estate’: Breathing new life into a derelict development in Roscommon

Flanking the entrance to the Shannon Valley housing estate in Ballaghaderreen, Co Roscommon, is the concrete shell of what was supposed to be a filling station. The large, dilapidated building gives a hint of what is to be found within the estate. Of the 38 houses in this Celtic Tiger era development, 16 are derelict, with graffitied walls and boarded-up windows and doors. Overgrown lawns stand at more than 30cm high and are fenced in with signs along their perimeter warning against entry. Twenty other unfinished houses in the estate were demolished by the council 12 years ago.Shannon Valley is among a dwindling but still substantial number of what the Department of Housing lists as “unfinished housing developments”. In 2010 there were 2,846 unfinished estates. By 2022 the number had reduced to 75, of which 40 were unoccupied. Thirty-five were occupied to some extent.The department could not provide more up-to-date data, but said local authorities would continue to assess the best options for resolution of unfinished developments.READ MOREBut the Shannon Valley estate as a whole is far from a no-go zone. On a sunny summer afternoon, the freshly mown green plays host to a gaggle of boisterous children with a football. Among the dereliction are pockets of oasis, including a row of houses whose well-maintained fronts and gardens look fit for a Tidy Towns campaign. Husband and wife Connor Ryan and Esther Carroll Ryan take pride in their front garden, which is filled with an array of bright pink flowers. Ryan says that Shannon Valley is “like two completely different estates”, depending on which side a person stands. He has long pushed for improvements to the development and wants to ensure the parts he can control “look as best as they can”. He and a neighbour have taken responsibility for the maintenance of the communal green, regularly picking up rubbish and cutting the grass. The job takes about two-and-a-half hours. Can Irish towns be revived?Derelict Ireland: Dereliction is a blight at any time but it is particularly troubling in a housing crisis. Why are so many buildings left vacant, and what can be done? In this series, The Irish Times reports from towns in Wicklow, Roscommon, Cork and Donegal: examining the widespread challenges, as well as local efforts to bring boarded-up streets back to life.(Dara Mac Dónaill/The Irish Times ) Carroll Ryan says she would likely “pack and go if it wasn’t kept to the standard it is”. “I just want to see those houses done up now, so when you drive in you can see houses that are done up and with people living in them,” she says.The degradation of 15 of the unoccupied houses is soon set to be halted, as Roscommon County Council plans to upgrade and refurbish the properties using funding from central Government.Connor Ryan and his wife Esther take pride in where they live. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill The council’s chief executive, Shane Tiernan, says the homes will go to people on the social housing waiting list. There were 297 households on the council’s list as of last November, according to a report by the Housing Agency. The council issued a tender in late June seeking a builder who could carry out the “major” works at a cost of €3 million excluding VAT. Tiernan says the local authority expects to complete the works in the latter half of next year.The development became “very antisocial” and looks “pretty horrible” on one side, he says, but there is soon to be a positive outcome.Shannon Valley was developed by county-based firm BMC Developments Ltd, which was dissolved in 2014. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill Ryan and Carroll Ryan purchased their house for €145,000 in 2005 after spotting an advertisement in an Irish newspaper in London. They had been living there since the early 1990s and wanted to return to Ireland.The estate was developed by Co Roscommon-based company BMC Developments Ltd, which was dissolved in 2014. Like many other developments in parts of Roscommon, Longford, Leitrim, Sligo and Cavan, Shannon Valley had benefited from a lucrative tax break under the Rural Renewal Scheme for the Upper Shannon Area, which was in place for 10 years from 1998 to stimulate economic and physical development in the region. Carroll Ryan was the first resident of this estate, moving over from London in August 2005 a few months before Ryan finished up work there and joined her. Back then, only a few of the houses were built and there were no roads or street lights in place, Carroll Ryan says, adding she was somewhat nervous living there. Over time other homes were completed and some filled with tenants who worked in the nearby meat factory. Several properties have never been lived in.When the financial crash hit, the factory closed and most of those workers moved to Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo, for work. Then came a wave of burglaries and vandalism, with people ripping out kitchens, stairs, doors and boilers from the empty houses. “Whatever they could cash out – bathroom suites, the whole lot – they took them,” Carroll Ryan says. This made her feel uneasy as she “never knew who was going to come” to the neighbourhood and they were showing up at “all hours of night”. The county council has committed to making empty properties inhabitable again. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill View of the partly finished estate. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill Councillor Michéal Frain: 'To see vacant properties in estates or on the main street or any road at this stage is not good enough.' Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill No one was ever caught, Ryan says. “They damaged the whole lot and then nobody could live in them because they were all abandoned and the back windows were all broken. The doors were broken, the stairs were broken,” he says.Despite the issues, Ryan and Carroll Ryan now enjoy living in Shannon Valley, saying it is “better than what it was”. But they look forward to the estate being “taken in charge” by the county council and for the derelict buildings to become occupied with families.“It will be nice when it is a proper estate,” Carroll Ryan says.Independent local councillor Michéal Frain says the local authority is “playing catch up”, but its housing plans are now “moving in the right direction”.“I back the council 100 per cent because to see vacant properties in estates or on the main street or any road at this stage is not good enough. We have a housing crisis,” he says. House prices in Ballaghaderreen once averaged just €58,000, the cheapest in the State. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill A 2017 Daft.ie report by Trinity College Dublin academic Ronan Lyons found houses in Ballaghaderreen were then the cheapest in the State, with the average going for €58,000. By 2020, Lyons found it was one of just three areas in the State where homes averaged below €100,000. More recent reports do not break down sales into such small areas. A July 2026 report by MyHome.ie found the median asking price for a house in Co Roscommon was €225,000 in the second quarter of this year, up 12.5 per cent in 12 months. The county was tied with Mayo in seeing the largest annual rise in listing prices.Frain says there is now huge demand for housing in Co Roscommon, like elsewhere in the State, but the availability is not there. Councillor Micheál Frain: 'I’m just hoping this project can be started and finished within a short space of time.' Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill “We always associate homelessness and housing issues with urban centres … it is in every town and village. Local authorities throughout the country are going to have to pick up the mantle and do something about housing,” he says, also saying that immigration has played a role but, regardless, there is a “massive” lack of availability.He praises the county council for finally committing to Shannon Valley estate, which he knows will be finished off to a “very high standard”. “I’m just hoping now that they can get on with it and that this project can be started and finished within a short space of time,” he says.Ryan and Carroll Ryan hope the houses, once refurbished, will be filled with “a lot of good families coming in who will take part in the community”.Their residents’ group, which currently comprises them and two neighbours up the road, will be recruiting new members, they hope. Ryan hopes at least some of the new tenants will volunteer to mow the green.Tuesday: Barry Roche visits Mallow, Co Cork, where there are 14 properties on the Derelict Sites Register, including the Central Hotel, which has been derelict since it closed in 2007