The #rabble14 Rant.

In #rabble14, Blog, Print Editionby rabbleLeave a Comment


Above The last minute coffee fueled proofing.

A lot has happened since the last bumper issue. We’ve a new Taoiseach, we lost a Garda Commissioner and our city is being savaged by vulture funds. So, in true rabble fashion we’ve been sharpening our knives, even our pencils and honing missives about the state of the gombeen nation.

We honestly thought we’d have this issue out over a month ago. It just shows how overwhelming it can be to pull it all together. There’s a whole team of cats that need herding into the bag. So, we get left sat here bleeding out of our eyeballs chasing content. At this stage, we’ve taken in enough blue light from our computer screens to send our cortisol levels to the moon for the rest of our lives. But when it all comes together, it’s worth it. Isn’t it? Please say yes!

Now a generation of us look on aghast as insatiable landlords crack tenants open and suck the life out of their skulls. There’s a real blood thirst out there. Property porn everywhere and cranes reaching for the moon. Yet the homeless are left to die on the streets while the chief housing advisor claims that our homeless rates are normal and that we shouldn’t be overly concerned. We’ve reached the European standard. Is that a hint of pride in his voice?

Builds of new social housing have reached an all time low, while Eoghan Murphy and his Department of Housing predecessor Simon Coveney use wormy words. Describing the money being thrown at private landlords as a social housing “solution” and setting up storage units for homeless families. Jaysus, the shite they feed us.

Not surprising so, this issue is jammers with stuff on housing, that most basic of needs. Patrick McCusker breaks down what the budget for next year has in store for housing and why it’s going to be more of the same. While Sean Finnan looks at increased vulture fund activity in the realm of private mortgages where homeowners in arrears are coming face to face with the beast of private equity. He talks to those looking to help them in their struggle and what can be done to limit their activity.

Vulture funds may be sharpening their beaks and sucking the marrow out of our city with their ever increasing rents, but stuff keeps happening, folks keep kicking against the pricks. So, rabble goes underground and checks the pulse of the subterranean blues, looking at the recent increase in HIV diagnoses for instance.

After the recent Jobstown debacle, with one Superintendent after another reading the government’s script before video evidence left them wiping egg off their face, we felt it was time to delve into scandals in the force. We wonder if anything can ever change in a culture of secrets and lies. Is it a few rotten apples or one festered orchard?

While Varadkar splashes out five million for his new communications department, to make sure all of his little thicks in office can keep their shit eating smiles stuck to their faces no matter what they spew, we keep battering down the hatches on whatever pennies our subscribers post us on Patreon.

Supporting us on Patreon keeps us with an office over our heads, and covers the costs of print and distribution. Without it, we’d be dead ducks. Who knows one day we may get our hands on some of that sweet €13 billion from Apple. Until then we are down with using our meagre resources to ring the bell loud and holler about the rotten and shady deals on our fair isle. There’s enough crap here to make the Panama papers blush. #ParadisePapers? Just you wait for the Hiberno Dossier.

We’re 14 issues deep into this now. It’d be a real shame to have to wrap things up because we ran over a fiscal cliff that was easily avoided through crowd-funding and your support.

So, c’mon folks – make the leap. Support our Patreon.

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