{"id":48273,"date":"2026-10-09T16:56:24","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T15:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=48273"},"modified":"2026-10-09T16:56:24","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T15:56:24","slug":"ihbc-features-heritage-from-the-global-doorstep-frank-mcdonald-obituary-campaigning-journalist-changed-how-ireland-thinks-about-urban-planning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=48273","title":{"rendered":"IHBC features \u2018Heritage from the Global doorstep\u2019: Frank McDonald obituary &#8211; campaigning journalist changed how Ireland thinks about urban planning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><u>The Irish Times<\/u><\/em> has published its obituary for Frank McDonald, whose \u2018reporting was relentless\u2019 and led to his ground-breaking book \u2018The Destruction of Dublin\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><u>The Irish Times<\/u><\/em> writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2026Few journalists have the sort of impact he had\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Over a reporting career lasting some 50 years, he campaigned for better urban planning and design, and against the sort of corruption that can attend the nexus where swashbuckling construction comes into contact with politics and public administration. He\u2026 abhorred how central Dublin, in the 1960s and 1970s in particular, was\u2026 to descend into dereliction and squalor\u2026 Among McDonald\u2019s other fans was one Bob Geldof. The singer described him, admiringly, as \u2018a permanent thorn in the fat arse of municipal pretension\u2019 \u2013 a description of which the journalist approved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thomas Francis (Frank) McDonald, who has died aged 76, was born in Dublin in 1950 and grew up in Cabra. \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2026 At the end of \u2018Truly Frank\u2019 and ruminating on ageing and on death, McDonald quoted approvingly from the inscription on the tomb of the poet Philip Larkin. \u2018What will survive of us is love,\u2019 it reads. \u2018I like to think that\u2019s true,\u2019 McDonald wrote\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/obituaries\/2026\/09\/05\/frank-mcdonald-obituary-campaigning-journalist-changed-how-we-think-about-urban-planning\">Read more here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Irish Times has published its obituary for Frank McDonald, whose \u2018reporting was relentless\u2019 and led to his ground-breaking book \u2018The Destruction of Dublin\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[570,361,821,1037],"class_list":["post-48273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ihbc-newsblog","tag-dublin","tag-ireland","tag-obituary","tag-urban-planning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48273"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48274,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48273\/revisions\/48274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}