Meanwhile, In Grangegorman

at

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Today.

Brian Flanagan writes:

Eviction underway at Grangegorman [Dublin] where a formerly derelict space is a home for 27 people

Workers Solidarity Movement adds:

The people living here mostly have low paid insecure jobs. They don’t have friends in high places. Contrast what you see in the video (above) 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.

Workers Solidarity Movement (Facebook)

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65 thoughts on “Meanwhile, In Grangegorman

      1. Mick Flavin

        Don’t get so narky, you. Here’s yours. I prepared it just the way you like it (with a hole provided in the bottom of the container).

        1. Mani

          Thoughtful but I couldn’t possibly eat hat this time when people who for all intents and purposes are homeless are being made homeless.

  1. Wayne.F

    House? Looks like a large commercial property and not a residential premises! More land league nonsense

  2. Bacchus

    If you live in a squat you have to accept that at some stage the owners of that property will want it back. Your time is up, go and make a mess in someone else’s property. The Workers Solidarity Movement have once again shown themselves to be complete morons in search of a cause.

  3. TrippyRez

    I just went to their (The Workers Solidarity Movement) Facebook page. There seems to be a whole lot of solicitors following them based on their opinions on the legality of the whole situation. And as per usual the Gardai come in for a bit of a stick. Cause, you know, they’re just foot soldiers for the elite, man.

  4. Medium Sized C

    I like the “bog-standard houses” point.
    Not a new land league in sight.
    Constant Marckewicz wouldn’t dirty his size 16 boots with this lot.

  5. Kolmo

    These vulture fund properties are’t going to turn a profit with unentrepreneurial homeless types living there.

  6. ollie

    broadsheet. ie
    where bored students post while waiting on mummy to serve dinner/wash their clothes/wipe their bottoms.

  7. Tom

    So from listening to that what I can gather is that basically there is a commercial property which had a receiver appointed to it 3 years ago.

    The property has remained unoccupied and in a star of dereliction in that period. Some “individuals” decided to make themselves at home and now perceive that the receiver no longer has a right to their property and it is now their “home”??

    My initial thoughts are surely if they are a legitimate tenant they will be registered with Irish Water???

  8. edalicious

    “imagine their behaviour if the cameras were not there.”

    Do you think this is really fair? I’d imagine the gardaí would more than likely behave the same if there was or wasn’t cameras around. Is the implication here that the only thing preventing them going a massive baton rampage is a couple of cameras? Surely these days anywhere that there are people, there are more than likely going to be cameras there too.

    1. ReproBertie

      It never occurs to these “imagine if there were no cameras” people that if the gardaí were willing to smash heads they probably wouldn’t worry to much about confiscating cameras as well.

      I find it hilarious that the first person interviewed says they told the gardaí they were trespassing.

    2. Soundings

      Well the Garda brutalising the homeless man last week didn’t like being filmed – remember his “move away now for your own safety”

    3. Jones

      I skimmed through the video and didn’t see much in terms of baton rampaging. Voice overs aren’t really evidence of brutality.

  9. alex lyons

    That site has been derelict for at least 5 years, but which is of more benefit, redeveloping that site and creating jobs and indeed homes or let the people who moved in there in the last few months (and last few months only) and have been grafiiting and vandalising the surrounding area stay on?

    1. Joanna

      Until very recently I rented on Grangegorman Road and in fairness to the squatters they have actually been a benefit to the road over the last year. They have cleared rubbish from in front of abandoned houses and kept the area around the squats tidy.They have always been easy to deal and were very open with us about their plans for the squat. As well as providing housing the squat was an artist and exhibition space and the graffiti is better than the old advertsing posters that hadn’t been replaced in months. To be honest it was much nicer walking up past the squat on dark winter evenings, knowing there were people in there rather than past the row of abandoned houses and warehouse space that I lived with for the preceding six years.

      1. alex lyons

        the bike couriers, about ten of them in those houses on lower grangegorman yes, they were grand.
        but if you walk down that road now youll see junkies going in and out of that side gate beside those houses. plus after that squatting festival loads more people moved in to the warehouse and made themselves busy spraypainting crappy slogans walls of shops, businesses and homes in the area, they need to be cleared out

        all of them have to know though a squat is a squat, they need to be there a hell of a lot longer than a few months to a year to have any legal right to be there

        1. Joanna

          Drug use was an issue on Grangegorman Road long before the squatters and will probably still be an issue long after the squatters are gone. What is happening here is that property owners were happy to leave the area undeveloped for almost eight years while waiting for the DIT development to begin. In that time we had to put up the place being used as a tip by anyone who felt like just dumping their rubbish. One night we came home to find that the abandoned warehouse adjoining our house was on fire due to addicts using it as shelter. Now that the campus is open the owners are happy to move back in and start developing. If they had maintained the buildings and kept them secure over the past few years they wouldn’t have the issue with the squatters now. The squatters just made good use of a space that the property owners couldn’t be bothered about for a very long time.

          1. ReproBertie

            Maybe the property owners “couldn’t be bothered” because they were skint and there was no value in it until the DIT campus was opened?

          2. alex lyons

            the site was taken over by a receiver so by definition its not one owner sitting on it, similar sites on Benburb St, Montpellier Hill, NCR

            site should have been more secure but by that logic its ok to steal from unlocked cars

  10. Dubloony

    Bailiffs -ok, so they’ve been through the court process and are taking back a disused factory building.
    It may have been shelter but its a squat.

    Was anyone paying rent? If so, to whom?
    .

  11. Planet of the Missing Biros

    Nobody cares because they’re crusties. Poor old crusties, just going about their day scrounging and avoiding adulthood, expecting everyone else to pay for them – until Daddy gives them a job in the company.

  12. Jimboy

    surely they should be given this for free? like downloading the walking dead or an mp3 – bloody denis o brien

  13. phil

    Whatever about ‘crusties’ , squatting , illegal occupation, civil law v’s criminal law , lawful warrants etc…

    I really would prefer that that Gardai behave within their own guidelines and not break the law themselves. It could be argued in some circumstances , such as when there is a danger to life, that Gardai act quickly and more towards the spirit of the law but the post above suggests its not one of those situations …

    1. Joe the Lion

      the lads sitting up there on the girder seem to be in ‘high places’ to me – #justsayin

  14. Soundings

    Well, let’s compare the civility of the Gardai today with the Gardai later this week when inevitably the O’Donnells will have to give up their former family home, and the New Land League will presumably be upping their presence and protest at Gorse Hill.

    1. ReproBertie

      I’m confused by your comment. Are you hoping the gardaí batter your mates the O’Donnells or predicting that they’ll be overly polite with them?

  15. Soundings

    What are the 27 now going to do for shelter by the way, there’s not exactly an abundance of cheap housing available in Dublin.

    1. Dubloony

      If they moved in recently, where were they before that?
      And yes, there is a serious shortage of affordable accommodation in Dublin. Are they on the housing list already?

    2. Rob_G

      If they can’t afford to rent accommodation at market rates, they can present their case to their local authority and be dealt with the same as everyone else, rather than skipping the queue and using something that isn’t by rights theirs to use.

    3. Rob_G

      also – maybe the developers are planning to turn it into 400 new apartments, and these 27 chaps were holding everything up, making 400 families wait an extra few weeks for their new apartments.

      1. Joanna

        If there are apartments going in there they will be designed for students in order to take advantage of the new campus, this will be of no benefit to the families on waiting lists. If this area was to be developed to alleviating the housing crisis it wouldn’t be happening just as the new campus is opening.

          1. JunkFace

            Who says Dublin is a balanced city? Its probably the most UNBALANCED city in Europe!! Heading for a massive economic calamity if they don’t sort out the housing crisis/Rent control situation

    1. Jones

      That’s because their college has expanded at an alarming rate and don’t have the money or facilities to support it.

  16. john

    Have to laugh they broke into our homes did they not break in themselves? They vandalise graffiti on local businesses who have to pay to clean their crap art up. They dump their rubbish in the local flats near by. They put up barb wire to kick local kids who use to play in there before the crusties took over. Give them 24 hours and good luck

  17. PPads

    I love Squatting politics. Among other things; Thatcher removed the legal rights in Britain back in the day. The CC in Ireland never warmed to the idea in the first place as poor were never to aspire(aspike).
    Basically, those who couldn’t afford a home squatted in somewhere rich forgot about. In Ireland 20i5 that would apply to Republicans just as much as Unionists obviously. Sorry I couldn’t make the Spike on O’Connell bigger.

  18. Peter Dempsey

    There’s a posh English guy on the video at the start. Lots of middle class people in WSM. Funny that.

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