The history of public housing in Ireland is, in many ways, a history of failure. Donal Fallon takes us for a trip in his De Loreon and introduces us to a champion of social housing who designed beautiful European art deco buildings for the city that still stand out as visionary models today. Regarded as a legacy of British rule, slumdom still defined much of the heart of inner-city Dublin … Read More
Taking On The Vulture Club.
Above: Illustrartion by Holly Pereira. Check out more of her amazing work at Hyperpictures. Last January, the Master of the High Court Edmund Hanahan warned that over the next five years home repossessions were to increase five-fold. Already this year there have been 517 cases lodged by companies affiliated with vulture funds against debtors, that’s a tenfold increase from the 53 cases recorded in the High Court last year. Sean Finnan looks at … Read More
Gombeen #14: The Regime’s Regina.
Who is the regime’s Regina? A blueshirt politician, a landlord, and a failed en-tra-pra-nure – she couldn’t be more the elite’s own if she tweeted where she was when Princess Diana died in a week when three homeless people died on the streets. Her failed consultancy firm Enhance Solutions didn’t keep its books in proper order – a criminal offence in itself. When it went into liquidation it owed over … Read More
The Estate Of That.
Above: Photos from the production. First the Red Road flats in Glasglow, and then the famous Balfron Tower that inspired JG Ballard’s High Rise.. As Ireland scrambles to get to grips with its housing crisis, director Paul Sng turns in a blinding exposée of the deliberate dismantling of social housing in the UK. It’s called Dispossession: The Great Social Housing Swindle. Rashers Tierney caught up with him to hear … Read More
Scratch That Itch.
Above: Patrick O’Brien captures the masked hip-hop crusader in his natural enviroment. From co-founding Galway’s Community Skratch games, being a member of the Vince McMahon scratch super-group to making some seriously innovative music as one half of one man duo Deviant and Naïve Ted, Andy Connolly has been a cornerstone of Irish hip-hop and electronica for over a decade. Martin Leen took the brave step and left Dublin for the … Read More
Another Outpost Gone.
Above: Captured by our man Beggars. The kiosk in all its architectural glory. This tiny hexagonal kiosk out in Ballsbridge is just 37 square feet. It’s about the size of a bathroom in a small gaff. It may be one of Dublin’s smallest buildings, but as Dan Lambert finds out it tells a terrible tale about where our city is going. On the outside it’s undeniably pretty. Sitting neatly on … Read More
A Poverty Of Ambition.
The government strategy on housing is to constantly repeat “spending commitments” and issue estimates for house building projects. Patrick McCusker dons his number crunching glasses and looks behind the headlines of the government’s housing strategy in Budget 2018. Overall spending is up to 1.9 billion in housing, which is a startling 46% increase on the 2017 budget. This figure includes 500m to meet a new target of 50,000 homes … Read More
Bye George!
Above: Illustartion by Mice. That’s next year’s totally inappropriate Halloween mask sorted so. George Hook is a long time Blueshirt supporter who made a good living from greasing the gears of the establishment and the fine craft of being a reactionary wind up merchant on prime time radio. We drafted in Paul Dillon to look at how the Hookie monster eventually fell from grace and the far bigger picture of … Read More
After Repeal – What?
It’s been thirty four years since the eight amendment was added to the constitution, and it looks like 2018 will be the year we may finally get rid of it. What we’ll actually get to vote on remains to be seen. With the repeal movement so giddily high, it’s easy to forget that removing the amendment mightn’t be enough. Cathy Flynn surveyed campaigners across the island to suss out what battles might be on the horizon.