Ireland is currently undergoing a period of significant change brought about by the Celtic Tiger economy, the results of which can be seen in all sectors of Irish society in particular in the built environment.

I originally began this project because of the omni-presence of the defunct petrol stations within the landscape. Ireland has become a property obsessed nation and some economists say too high a proportion of our economic growth is related to the construction industry. 'My ongoing project looks at Irish cities during this period of change. The demand for houses and apartments is forcing a lot of businesses to sell off their sites to facilitate this demand. My ongoing project looks at the city in this period of change. Over the past number of months I have been working on a project which involved the photographic documentation of derelict petrol stations around Ireland.

I began this project to document the omni-presence of the defunct petrol stations within the landscape. There has been, in the past couple of years a mass closure of these garages and the empty petrol station is becoming an increasingly common sight around Ireland. At present there are more cars than ever on the road in Ireland and yet fewer petrol stations. The reason for this mass closure is primarily because of the high value of the land they occupy coupled with an increasing cost of oil. The sites the garages used to occupy are being sold off and re-zoned for property purposes, which is typical of contemporary Ireland.


Myles Shelly