Longford

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ballagh

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Does anyone live or has anyone lived in longford. I went looking at houses last weekend and was blown away by the luxuries money can buy down that part of the country.
Longford has a direct train service to Dublin which I believe is only going to improve. I drove from Dublin (all be it a Sunday) and It took a little over an hour to the Longford By-Pass. If I was to do it daily i would use commuter train. Fortunately I work in IFSC so once I get off train I am 2 minutes from work.
Does anyone on these boards live in longford and work in Dublin?
 
eh its a hole.

i lived there for almost 20 years, hole is actually a nice word to be honest.

nothing in it apart from luigi's chippers and Longford town fc.


the train service is dreadful, thats over 2 hours to get to connolly ( so your two mins would really help) and its cold most of the time, i commuted for 3 months last year before i moved again.

honestly its a forgotton town. While mullingar and tullamore thrive Longford is left behind with what i see as little investment and little sign of anything major happening in the future.

informed rant over.
 
What's happening in Mullingar and Tullamore apart from a greater acceleration in house prices due to a slightly shorter distance from Dublin?
 
well apart from getting a better deal in decentralisation and more industry there is the basic infastructure.

there are also town in the national development plan in which longford was overlooked.

Recently a mahjor employer in the county all but shut, what has replaced it ????? nothing is the answer.

tullamore has a powerful man in the minsiter for finance and maybe some day taoiseach.

longford had a taoiseach and what did he get us.......a by pass and they didn't even build it right seeing as you still have all the mayo traffic coming through the town.

the level of choice and service is also low, you have a new business park open in longford over a year and homebase and argos are the only tennants and they are the same company.

Compare this to tullamore for expample ?????

athlantic homecare, argos, did, harry corry, tesco fuel station.

all of these opened in a short time and that is just one area of the town.


take the amount of car dealers in the town or lack of.

toyota, volkswagen, mazda....thats it i think. not even a ford dealer in the county, they sold up and we have aldi now.

as some one who lived in the town and county and have moved to anothert part of the midlands i can see the difference in the towns, the price of a house is one thing. Its everything else that goes with it that is also important.
 
I had a lovely post about the pros and cons of LD written when it just disappeared.

Basically the way I see it is, you make what you want out of any place. If you choose to see only the bad in a place you should move elsewhere.

I think Longford is a great place to live. So what if it doesn't have the huge british multiple stores ... I can get everything I need in Longford. It is a town with character ... smaller independent retailers offering service and choice. Is having every town in the country a carbon copy of the one next to it really what we aspire to?

"longford had a taoiseach and what did he get us.......a by pass and they didn't even build it right seeing as you still have all the mayo traffic coming through the town" ... why would any businessman build a bypass to divert traffic away from the family business?

I will conceed that the weather in Longford is a bit wet and foggy ... but there are great bogs!

We could do with a better 3rd level educational institute also ...
 
As a Longford native now living in Dublin, I dont like my town being slagged off - however, I'm not blind to its short-comings. I think in some sense, Longford is perceived to be a booming place with the number of housing estates that are being constructed in the town and throughout the county. The only thing that makes be a bit uneasy about this is that most of this construction is being fuelled by the Section 23 relief that applies in the county - so what happens when the relief ceases (Mid 2008 I think?)??

If one strips away construction activity there's very little there.. I know Abbott Laboratories opened recently - but we need at least another 4 similar plants to allow the county to prosper beyond the Section 23 era. Unfortunately our Dail representatives are insignificant back-benchers and lack any kind of clout to bring any sence of priority to the needs of the county.

Anyhow, back to the original issue - should you live in Longford - you could do much worse. Be careful in the area you chose - personally I would recommend living in one of the smaller towns outside Longford like Newtownforbes, Drumlish or Killashee - but whatever floats your boat!
 
I lived and worked in Longford for a year and didn't like it at all. There's nothing to do in the evenings - well, there's a few pubs but I wouldn't go into a country pub on my own and I didn't know anyone living there. It was a very lonely depressing year and I just lived for my weekends back home in Dublin.
 

less choice and higher prices.......

the point on the higher level education is true, another reason why a town such as athlone is miles ahead also.....

add to that the hotel monopoly in the town.

have you ever seen the town when mayo are playing in dublin, its bedlam or on a sunday evening when the crowds are heading back to the big smoke. thats the reason for the by pass and most businesses welcome a by pass as it allows the normal residants of a town to go about their business in peace.

as yogi and cahir say, strip back the estates and there is little there. All expansion needs extra infrastructure and its not being provided. I see that alos in the town i'm buying a home for myself in at the moment ( Portarlington)
 
Thank you all for your wonderful insight in Co Longford.

With regard to the by-pass, I was looking at a house just off the strokestown road which i believe will be minutes from the extended by pass? Also I viewed a house in Drumlish which is literally minutes from the new Nick Faldo designed golf course at Lough Rynn and a new starting development in cariglass which is on another new golf course (although houses a little more expensive).
With regard to Cahir posting- you say you were bored during the week in longford - Is there not a cinema in longford? a gym? bowling facilities, an irish premier league football team? Personally I'm not into going to the pub during the week so I really do'nt see your point.
Ron Burgundy - I appreciate your feedback with regard infrastructure - the lack of proper health facilities is something that did surprise me and with regard to educational facilities it's a pity no 3rd level college is in the town but I am curently studying by distance learning using a broadband connection so I suppose i can work around that negative aspect..on the subject of broadband does anyone know what the broadband infrastructure is like in the areas just outside longford town?
Employment wise, I work in Dublin - the point of my original mail being it is now possible to commute from Longford - Dublin. I know booming towns in Meath, Kildare even north dublin like swords that do'nt have a train access to Dublin. As matter of fact I currently spend nearly 1.5 hrs driving home in the evening to Swords to a mediocre house (compared to what longford has to offer).
Well thanks all. I will be in Longford this weekend doing some more viewing and sussing...I will not jump ship just yet...but it's looking good!
 
Hey there - I'm originally from Roscommon, bought house in Longford with the idea that I could commute daily to Wyeth (Clondalkin), and collect tax incentive. Getting as far the traffic lights at end-ish of N4 to turn right for Lucan was grand. It would only take me ~30-40mins to get this far. The rest of the journey is in theoryl15 mins - but in reality it could take me anything up to 40 mins. I knew plenty of people that considered the same journey as me - they ended up in same boat - renting during week. It was as bad on return journey. Could take up to 1 3/4 - 2hrs to get home. Hope this helps!
 

There's only so many times you can go to the cinema, particularly as it's so small and didn't show many movies. I joined the gym and that helped with the boredom. I think bowling alone is something that would have made me even more depressed. I have no interest in football and even if I had I wouldn't gone to a match as a lone female.
I have no interest in the pub during the week either.
 

I think that only goes to show what i've been saying, to be honest its different for those commuting to dublin. By the time you get home you so tired you'll do nothing during the week anyway and as i've seen in Laois, a lot of the dubs then head up to the big smoke for the weekend to visit friends and family.

Some people buy a house but its never a home, its a cheap way onto the housing ladder and they never get involved in the area they live in . They bring nothing to the community as they are never there ( due to work etc )

As far as i know getting broadband outside the major town ain't that good cause you must be within a mile of the exchange.

As for the soccer team go go go !!!!!!
 

Cars 14:05
Children of Men 21:00 23:20
Click 20:50 23:20
Garfield 2 14:30
Hoodwinked! 14:20 16:20 18:30
Monster House 16:30
Open Season 14:10 16:05
Talladega Nights: The ballad of ricky bobby 18:30
The Devil Wears Prada 16:30 18:40 21:00 23:15
World Trade Centre 18:00 20:40 23:15

I got the cinema listing for Longford yesterday..seems alright to me.
 

yeah thats this week.......and 3 of those films are for children.

thats one place to go once a week and its bloody expensive these days as well.

you mentioned golf, another expensive past time, not everyone is interested or can afford to pay the stupid fees for these clubs.

in normal day to day life there is very little, but there is a great theatre and it has good plays a lot of the time.

as i've said, overall there are better towns with more to offer.
 
Thanks Rugbyball - I see your point. However, I will be using the train. I have reviewed the timetables of the train and although it's not exactly a hop on - hop off journey (far from it) at least it's consistent in that I'm not going to be guessing the traffic situation every morning.
As i posted previously - I currently face Dublin traffic everyday!
 

thats if the trains run to time. Irish Rail are not the best at time keeping, i think the watch needs a little tweaking !!!!!!
 
To be fair, I have had any delays on that line yet (cue bridge strike this evening...........).

What I will say is that in the evening you could be standing fairly uncomfortably until after Clonsilla.

Also, I'm not sure if applies to Longford trains, but I have a feeling it does, there is a new station for this line opening at the end of 2007 at Spencer Dock. The plan is that the trains using this line will no longer stop at Connolly, but instead will go direct from Drumcondra to Spencer Dock.
 
Thanks CCOVICH, would suit me fine. I work close to spencer dock.
 
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