Swords: Ireland’s emerging city
Fingal’s county capital is Swords, which was originally a monastic settlement founded by St Colmcille in 560 but is now classified as a Key Town, with a population set to grow to 100,000 in the future.
Fifty years ago, the population of Swords was 4,133. It has increased almost tenfold since then. The 2016 census showed it had a population of 39,251, making it the second largest town in Ireland behind Drogheda (40,956) but the CSO figure didn’t include two areas on the edge of the town which, when included, increase the population to over 45,000.
As Swords continues to expand, Fingal County Council is working to ensure that it grows sustainably and develops into well-designed county capital. Key to this is a plan to reverse the historic shift away from Main Street, which commenced in the early 2000s, in order to facilitate better placemaking and create a more resilient town centre.
A cross-departmental council project called Sustainable Swords aims to produce a place-making strategy focused on the strategic regeneration and sustainable development of Swords. The goal is to increase the resilience of the local economy and to provide for an enhanced, accessible, inclusive, child friendly and healthy urban environment.
The origins of the Sustainable Swords initiative lie in a number of strategic documents, including Your Swords – An Emerging City – Strategic Vision 2035 and the Fingal County Development Plan 2017-2023. The vision of the former is to consolidate and strengthen the historic town centre of Swords, whilst the latter describes several specific objectives for the town centre within the context of a plan-led strategy.
The ambition for Sustainable Swords is to create a coordinating mechanism that will establish a package of measures and projects that are prioritised, programmed and impactful, and will enable the coordination of investment and decision-making across multiple stakeholders, maximising private sector engagement and identifying opportunities for synergies and collaboration.
Sustainable Swords is currently on the third part of a four-part approach which will see the proposed plan going out for public consultation in March before the final plan is brought before the members of Fingal County Council for adoption.
The first part of the project saw a Health Check of the work programme being carried out while the creation of a Public Realm Strategy and a Transport Strategy formed parts two and three. The fourth element will include a business case evaluation of key transformative projects identified during the study.
The Council have so far identified six themes on which the strategic priorities for the project are based. They are:
- Improving access, permeability and connectivity;
- Reimagining our public realm;
- A town for all;
- Protecting the natural environment;
- Promoting and linking heritage assets; and
- Supporting local businesses.
Among the strategic priorities that have been identified are projects like the Western Link Road which will be critically important in enabling traffic movements to be directed away from the town centre and allowing future phases of town centre enhancement to take place. The transition to multi-purpose mobility hubs which can facilitate car-sharing, bikes, electric vehicles, and other forms of emerging mobility are also being prioritised along with the construction of greenways and Safe Routes to School.
The reimagining of the public realm includes the transformation of Main Street and turning it into the heart of a thriving town centre that could include a network of smart streets with solar powered lighting, WiFi, smart lighting, bottle filling stations and public fountains.
The need to conduct feasibility studies into the provision of major recreation, leisure and health infrastructure is also being proposed and Sustainable Swords also envisages working with the local community, especially those groups like Swords Tidy Towns and Swords Woodland Association who are already involved in projects that are linked to an ethos of more sustainable development such as the Swords Biodiversity Action Plan.
Swords’ rich and evocative history means that protecting heritage is a key part of the Council’s plan. The imposing Swords Castle dominates the centre of the town and has been renovated and opened to the public in recent years. It has also provided the inspiration for the Swords Cultural Quarter, a multi-million-euro project which will create a major new public and civic space by 2025.
According to the Mayor of Fingal, Councillor Seána Ó Rodaigh, the importance of this project cannot be underestimated. “The objective of the Swords Cultural Quarter project is to energise this area of Swords in order to make a balanced town that provides places, buildings and spaces for both cultural and economic activity for all its citizens and to create a new sense of place,” said the Mayor.
The final Sustainable Swords theme is about support for local businesses and continuing to develop the Metro Economic Corridor. It also involves taking advantage of the shift towards remote and hybrid working and offering Swords town centre as a more attractive place to work from for residents.
The Chief Executive of Fingal County Council, AnnMarie Farrelly, says that throughout its long history Swords has always been evolving and the Council is determined to ensure that future growth is carefully managed. She said: “A town is never complete, and it never stops changing and you can see that with Swords. Swords will continue to experience a lot of change in the coming years and the challenge is to ensure that change within Swords is a positive process that will make Swords a better place to live, work, visit, and do business. We want to create a more vibrant town for all and become a good example of a sustainable approach to urban development.”
