Swelling Towns

The photo below shows a group of houses in the countryside in Cashel. This kind of small, remote settlement is becoming quite rare.

Houses in Cashel
Courtesy of John O'Gorman.

Today, new housing is most likely to be built in dense blocks a short distance away from urban centres, like this new estate in Deerpark, Co. Tipperary, pictured below.

Housing Estate at Deerpark, Cashel
Courtesy of John O'Gorman.

The reason for the growth in these larger estates is that towns have become much bigger and more people are living in and around them.

As more and more people are crammed together, the towns overflow and expand outwards. Most houses are located outside town centres, in what are called suburbs.

Apartments, Dominic Street, Cashel

An apartment block on Dominic Street, Cashel, Co. Tipperary.

Courtesy of John O'Gorman.

Apartments, Dominic Street, Cashel
Courtesy of John O'Gorman.

Apartments, Dominic Street, Cashel

An apartment block on Dominic Street, Cashel, Co. Tipperary.

Courtesy of John O'Gorman.

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Today, an increasingly common way of accommodating more people around a town or city is to build apartment blocks. Instead of many little houses spread out in estates, apartment blocks are built upwards in many stories.

Therefore, three or four dwellings can often fit into the same space as one dwelling would in a housing estate.