Dublin, Ireland: Eviction of Villa Park

Monday saw an eviction without court order in Dublin involving Garda and private security / builders at Villa Park, Dublin 7.  The house had been left abandoned for at least two years according to  neighbours before being brought back into use last October by people who needed a home.  One of them told us that it was a “Beautiful house that was to be demolished in order to make a new route to warehouse / bakery behind it but neighbours objected and planning permission was refused.  The person claiming ownership seemed to be very wealthy and is listed as a director of over 28 companies.” [Read More]

Dublin: Mutual Aid at the Bolt Occupied Hostel

Mutual aid is arguably as ancient as human culture; an intrinsic part of the small, communal societies universal to humanity’s ancient past. From the dawn of humanity, until far beyond the Invention of agriculture, humans were foragers, exchanging labor and resources for the benefit of groups and individuals alike.” – Wikipedia
Since the establishment of the Bolt Hostel just over a week ago, there have been many people that have arrived at the door to donate furniture, cloths, bed linin, volunteering their time, labour and skills. There has been a communal kitchen area/ TV area created, all by the donations of fridges, microwave, washing machine, cooker, table and chairs, sofa, TV and DVD player by people. [Read More]

Dublin: End of Grangegorman squat

Despite the call for resistance, the Grangegorman squat (AKA SquatCity) has ended in silence. In June 2015, keys were handed to the Gardai, with no fuss.

Dublin: Interview with An Spreach housing activists

On Tuesday evening Garda in Dublin smashed their way into a house in Phibsboro in Dublin in order to evict housing activists who had recently occupied it. The stories we published about it attracted a lot of discussion from our readers so we decided to interview one of the activists involved so they could explain their stance in relation to this specific occupation and the housing crisis in general.

Q: Could you give a bit of context to the particular house that was evicted?
[Read More]

Dublin: Eviction stopped

An attempted violent eviction was successfully halted in Dublin’s North Inner city this morning when residents used mattresses to prevent two men armed with sledge hammers smashing their way through their front door. Although the two men continued to attack the door they halted when Garda arrived on the scene.
[Read More]

Dublin: Self organising and the city – Squatting panel at Dublin Anarchist Bookfair 2015

What are the challenges and possibilities of popular self-organisation to reclaim our lives, our homes and our cities? At this years Dublin anarchist bookfair Jenny and Zoe looked at recent occupations in Dublin, including the Grangegorman Squat in Smithfield where resistance to eviction is ongoing [Read More]

Ireland: What Housing Crisis? This is a capitalist crisis

Ours is a society in which, in every field, one group of people makes decisions, exercise control, limits choices, while the great majority have to accept these decisions, submit to this control and act within the limits of these externally imposed choices. Nowhere is this more evident than in the field of housing: one of those basic human needs which throughout history and all over the world people have satisfied as well as they could for themselves, using the materials what were at hand and their own, and their neighbors labor. The marvelously resourceful anonymous vernacular architecture of every part of the globe is a testimony to their skill, using timber, straw, grass, leaves, hides, stone, clay, bone, earth, mud sand even snow. Consider the igloo: maximum enclosure of space with minimum of labor. Cost of materials and transportation, nil. And all made of water. Nowadays, of course, the Eskimos live on welfare handouts in little northern slums. Man, as Habraken says “no longer houses himself: he is housed” – Colin Ward.
[Read More]

Dublin: Update about Grangegorman eviction resistance

Yesterday (Friday 27th of March) we had court again, this time the judge had made a decision. He said the Injunction was successful, but he would delay it until May 4th.
This means they will not try to evict us until then, but after that they will try to evict us.

We are hoping that the time we’ve been given will allow people to travel to help us, and for us to raise support and prepare ourselves.
We’re expecting quite a heavy eviction so we’re preparing ourselves for that, and the more help we get the better chance we have of winning! [Read More]

Dublin: Grangegoman Eviction, report from after baliffs chased off

Interview with a Grangegorman resident shortly after their successful resistance to the attempt to evict them yesterday. Details what happened from when the bailiffs started attacking the defenders with poles, knocked them off the gate and then drove a van into them.
This level of escalation turned out to be too much even for the Garda who finally intervened to bring the non court mandated eviction to a halt. A deal was negotiated by which all the bailiffs, their vehicles and the construction workers would leave the site.
The resident also talks about how uplifting all the solidarity they received from other people living in the area was, which even included small businesses and social justice organisations that help the homeless.

Dublin: International Callout for eviction resistance

International Callout: Help us resist eviction of SquatCity

SquatCity (GrangeGorman), Dublin, currently resisting eviction.
We are putting out an international callout for support, to help us resist the eviction of our homes, and to defend squatting in Dublin. We have been subject to a large scale eviction attempt over the last couple of days, and we are currently resisting, and appealing for help and support.
Many of you would have stayed there during the International Squatters Convergence, and saw the space for yourselves.

Here is a brief timeline of what happened, as well as a short description of the space. [Read More]

Dublin: Grangegorman stays

The Grangegorman squats in Dublin, occupied since 2013, experienced an illegal eviction attack yesterday but managed to repel the thugs (see indymedia.ie for updates and fotos). It appears the next attack will be a legal eviction attempt.

The squatters released this message today: [Read More]

Dublin: Interviews and footage from the attempted eviction of Grangegorman occupied complex

“Our photographer was woken this morning by a text message telling him friends were getting evicted. So he grabbed his cameras, got down to the eviction and recorded this shocking footage and interviews that show a complete disregard for the people whose homes were under attack by both the Garda and private security.
The people living here mostly have low paid insecure jobs. They don’t have friends in high places. Contrast what you are about to see and hear with the very different treatment of the ‘bog standard house’ at Gorse Hill. And what you will see was recorded with the Garda and security knowing they were being recorded, imagine their behaviour if the cameras were not there. [Read More]