4 The Sunday Times January 27, 2019 MOVE City living is BRYAN MEADE; EAMON WARD freedom . . .

. . . country life is friendlier Larissa Nolan explains why she loves Dublin, while Gabrielle Monaghan extols the virtues of Co Clare

over a cheaper house in a far-flung at the residents’ summer street party. I The litter and traffic also began to bother much higher than I could get in my IN THE CITY, YOU’RE A satellite town, or a country manor. What see less of the south Dublin elite and SINCE MY MOVE I’VE MADE me. Most friends my age had long moved Dublin 8 apartment. VITAL PART OF AN EVER- are you going to do there all day? more of the normal working person. FRIENDS FROM ACROSS to the suburbs or the countryside to raise Traffic jams form only when cars are Anything fun involves getting in your car My son is the first of my family to grow a family. stuck behind a tractor or drivers who CHANGING ORGANISM and driving away from it. up in the city. He already knows his way THE GENERATIONS Once my apartment was nearly worth stop on the main street for a chat with I live in Dublin 8, around the corner from In the city, you’re truly living, you’re a around better than I do. I notice the During the summer heatwave of 2018, I what I had paid for it, I was more than each other. They stop because people the hospital where I was born, in an vital part of an ever-changing organism. sounds of sirens every night as he’s going would finish the working day by closing eager to sell up and get out of Dodge. make time for each other here. When the area called the Liberties. What a A city is defined by its people. to sleep, but he doesn’t. my laptop in my old terraced cottage in Single-income, self-employed trader-up- novelty of the pristine beaches and post- beautiful name. Yes, life in it can be maddening: there’s He attends an inner-city primary, west Clare and walking my two dogs pers without a 20% deposit don’t hold card-pretty landscape wears off, what I didn’t grow up in the city — I had a the grinding traffic, the queues, the noise which is unintentionally an international down grassy lanes, flanked by dry-stone much weight in the Dublin property remains is that much underrated quality, country childhood of mountains and and the irritating propensity Dublin has school. He is immersed in different walls, to the nearest beach. market, so there was nothing for it but to community spirit. This is a town accus- lakes — but I was drawn back to my place for conceit and pretension. Crime is cultures every day, among children of Under the watchful gaze of the dogs on return to my culchie roots. tomed to blow-ins, one that helps the of birth like a homing pigeon. higher and the homelessness crisis is different creeds and colours. His closest the rocky shoreline, and the horses and With the proceeds of my apartment, I economic refugees from the cities shed Dublin always seemed so exciting, shameful. It’s a place I associate with friends are Lithuanian-Romanian, Polish- cattle grazing on the surrounding cliffs, I bought a two-bedroom, mid-century the loneliness of urban living. ever since I ran into the late Thin Lizzy hard work — any time I’m living in Dublin, Nigerian and Indian-English. I made the could cool down in the Atlantic. Treading house with a small garden in a west Clare In the months after my escape to the singer Phil Lynott on Grafton Street when it’s always during an industrious period mistake of once asking one of them the clear water as the evening sun came town for a fraction of what the same country, I’ve made friends from across I was a child. He said “Howaya” to me. I of my life, and that’s no coincidence. where they felt they were from. He closer to the horizon, the stresses of the home would cost in Dublin. It’s just a five- the generations. Two of them left bags of remember because it was the first time I’d But it’s full of diversity, culture, art looked at me in confusion and said: working day would melt. minute walk from a supermarket, a digi- cooking apples in my porch and invited ever heard anyone say that. and, surprisingly, a sense of community. I “Dublin, of course.” Seventeen-year-old me would have tal hub, a handful of shops, a library and a me to dinner parties. Two more have Later, it was all about bands, bars and have a friend on one side from the big For me, Dublin city is convenience: rolled her eyes at the prospect of quitting medical centre. volunteered to look after my dogs during boys. Whelan’s, the Bleeding Horse, the fancy houses on South Circular Road and being able to walk everywhere; hopping Dublin in favour of a cheaper and quieter I’m fortunate enough to work from work trips to Dublin or family weddings. Mean Fiddler — how could there be so another from the flats in St Teresa’s on the Luas if you feel like it; and little life in Clare. When I was doing my home and, despite the well-documented After one such trip, I came home to much music and fun, every single night, Gardens. We’d meet at the local library, cafes, bakeries and boutiques in the Leaving Cert in 1994, I silently ticked problems with broadband availability in discover a wet patch on my wall from a just on the one stretch? The city seemed the park that’s located in between us, or middle of a row of houses. It’s having a off the days until I could leave the valley rural areas, my broadband speeds are leak in the tank in the attic, and a friend full of optimism and opportunity. dozen takeaway leaflets in your kitchen, of squinting windows that was the was there within 10 minutes to stop the I couldn’t wait to move there. On St Stephen’s Green as your playground, suburbs of my home town and move to flow. Twice, while I was carrying heavy drives in, there was a point at the top and the Camden Street Christmas tree. the capital for college. bags of shopping, women have stopped of the mountain where it spread It’s knowing about the “secret” Iveagh A decade later, following a five-year their cars to offer me an unnecessary lift. out below and looked to me like a giant Gardens, being on nodding terms with stint working for an American news orga- This would never happen in Dublin, a jewellery box. Game of Thrones actor Aidan Gillen, and nisation in Vienna, I bought an apart- city that has become so gentrified that As soon as I could, I moved there. meandering into a Gaiety show on a ment in the Liberties, with an eye to only the well-off can live a comfortable life. Now, I’ve been a city dweller — in one city whim. It’s about continually finding new trading up to a house once I entered my I naively imagined the small-town or another, but primarily Dublin — for Dublin city is places, even after all this time, such as the thirties. As the property crash took hold, Broadband Ireland I returned to would be filled with most of my life, and I love it as much War Memorial Gardens, and having the however, negative equity and soaring the kind of closed-minded characters today as I did then. convenience: best pizzeria and the oldest pub in Dublin service charges became a millstone. speeds are typical of a William Trevor novel. “Who needs a house out in Hacken- in your neighbourhood. It’s about being By 40, I had long outgrown my one- Nothing could be further from the truth — sack? Is that all you get for your money?” being able spoilt for choice, never bored and bedroom city pad and my love affair with much higher in our town at least. sang Billy Joel on Movin’ Out, his tribute owning it. the Big Smoke was souring. The Sure, there’s not much love for the to New York. It always made me smile, to walk There’s a reason 40% of the popula- approach of middle age, combined with a than in my “notions” of city-dwelling visitors, and because it’s so true. tion lives in Dublin, with more than 2010 assault by a group of drug users, had new arrivals arouse curiosity. But, in the Given the choice, I’d go for a small everywhere half a million in the city centre. It’s made me anxious about antisocial Dublin home end, no one cares if you happen to be a place in the inspiring city every time, about liberty. behaviour on the streets and on the Luas. bisexual atheist vegan from Glasnevin. MARKET WATCH WELCOME TO A NEW LEAN, MEAN CONVEYANCING MACHINE

nyone who has ever investigated until after the “There had been an There are a lot of Changes to the bought or sold a contract was signed — at expansion to the system advantages to the new sale process are house will know the a very late stage in the and that was leading to all system, according to intended to whole process is one transaction. If an issue sorts of problems. Our Walsh. Aof the most stressful arose with the title, it could contractual framework was “It’s more transparent, it streamline the (albeit non-life-threatening) delay the sale or even structured around the old should be more efficient, significant events you’ll eventually kill it. The new system yet conveyancing and it should be less risky.” title check system ever go through. It’s up Would-be buyers may was happening in three The biggest concern there with taking your have brought surveyors system different ways: no title expressed by the driving test. in; they may have checked investigation before profession was in relation LINDA Raised hopes, dashed that there were no visible is more contract, full investigation to dead deals. “The notion hopes, documents, leaks or signs of decay, but pre-contract and there was that you might do the work DALY demanding mortgage when it came to checking transparent a hybrid investigation on due diligence but lenders, hard-to-reach whether there were issues whereby some ultimately the contract is solicitors, more documents with the title, they didn’t and it investigation was done pre- not entered into is a real — it can be a long, drawn- do it until after the contract contract and some was concern, but on balance we out, fretful experience. So was signed. At that stage should done after.” have to reflect that the anything that makes that it was more difficult for For buyers and sellers, great majority of deals process easier is to be the buyer to exit the deal. be more the new system puts an result in a contract.” welcomed. Title issues can range onus on them to address The Law Society is Let’s all say hallelujah, from a house extension efficient and title issues earlier in the working with the Society then, for a new not having planning process. Walsh says sellers of Chartered Surveyors conveyancing system that permission, or having less risky will need to instruct their Ireland and other was launched by the Law the wrong planning solicitors to generate more representative bodies Society of Ireland on permission, to borrowings Michael Walsh says the risk of dead deals is a concern complete and full title to draw up a list of January 1. The society says on a property, or a lease packs before issuing the documents and information that this new pre-contract that used to affect a buyer says they hadn’t. investigation would happen into. Also, it was very documents to the buyers. that the seller will need investigation of title system property no longer being Michael Walsh, a post-contract. That sounds difficult to transmit the due It could make it more to gather before they will streamline the process. effective. member of the Law like putting the cart before diligence information.” difficult for the buyer to instruct a solicitor on a Every property sale Where the lines get really Society’s conveyancing the horse, and in fact it was. With changes in declare a problem with title sale. involves a process called blurred is if there is a right committee and partner and The origin of it is interesting technology, and developers after the contract is signed, Walsh says the new investigation of title. The of way on the property, and head of property at and it relates to the notion and receivers switching to as they will automatically system could also reduce buyer’s solicitor has to after the contracts are ByrneWallace, explains that that the parties were not pre-contract title be “deemed to have the time between signing carry out certain checks on signed, the seller argues the old system was willing to go to the effort investigation, the Law knowledge of all issues the contract and handing the property’s title. Up until that the buyer saw the designed back in the 1970s. of due diligence until the Society noted that the relating to the title and to over the keys. It sounds like now, titles were not right of way, whereas the “It envisaged that title contract had been entered system was ripe for change. have accepted them”. utopia.