Sean Lynch

b. 1978, Ireland

The Moyross housing estate was developed between 1973 and 1987 on the edge of Limerick city, comprising 1,160 houses divided into twelve parks. Although the population has decreased in recent years, it still stands in excess of 4,000 people, 50% of whom are under the age of 24. Employment stands at 21%. Last year Limerick City Council announced its vision for the area, intending to demolish the entire estate and rebuild it on a smaller scale. Large green areas between individual parks will eventually disappear – places that the city council consider partially responsible for the socially disenfranchised character of the area. This major regeneration programme has yet to begin in earnest.

In recent years, petrol bomb attacks and various gun-related incidents in Moyross have gained much attention in the Irish media. The archetypical view generated is of a troubled place, with images of boarded-up doorways of derelict houses reproduced frequently in local and national newspapers, portraying the area as down and out. This journalistic impulse has created a haze of oversimplification, damaging any understanding of community and physical infrastructure of the area to the casual outsider.

With such issues in mind, three specially trained peregrine falcons were introduced to Moyross in 2008. These birds, the fastest creatures in the world, were once populous in the west of Ireland, before the use of pesticides in the 1960s made them an endangered species. Residents met the birds at the local community centre, in school, and in the streets, alleyways and garden areas. A special timetable for the skies was agreed with local pigeon-owners before the falcons took off, with miniature video cameras attached to their bodies. Their free flights record the complexity of a place about to disappear under the failed agendas of urban planning.

(Text: reading the city catalogue, 2009)