Plenty of Honks at the High Court #ApolloHouse #HomeSweetHome pic.twitter.com/qzRu5SESd0
— Mick Caul (@caulmick) December 21, 2016
This morning.
At the High Court, Dublin.
Home Sweet Home writes:
Apollo House, which currently houses 35 residents who would otherwise be sleeping on the streets, faces threat of closure in Dublin’s High Court this morning.
Activists and residents call on all support to join them outside the courts to show support and help us to keep this building open for those in need of shelter. Mazars Receivers, apopointed by NAMA, have ordered the building to be vacated and lie empty again.
More as we get it
Keep Apollo Open! Support us in the courts (Facebook)
Earlier: Midnight At The Apollo
Pics: Mathieu Norry
Meanwhile…
We need your help to redistribute shoeboxes!!! Call 018881804 today. pic.twitter.com/03kyRYb4nO
— InnerCityHelpingHome (@ICHHDUBLIN) December 20, 2016
…those headlines seem to be writing themselves…
whilst this was only ever going to be a very short term solution, it was stupid to try to vacate the premises this week. I understand the liability concerns but Hansard et all would have been equally as liable and no one was going to tackle them on this.
there was a virtuous intent here so it should be facilitated as far as is practical
“it should be facilitated as far as is practical”
Which legally isn’t very far.
No it’s not, but you can go through a whole range of voicing your displeasure, and requests to abandon etc before bringing it to court on Christmas week. totally understand why they feel they need too btw, and it probably is the prudent thing to do, but given the circumstances it might not be the best thing to do
…the law can be relied on to live down to it’s reputation…being an ‘ass’
I think the owners are covering their collective ass. If anything happens to anyone in Apollo they can show that they are doing everything possible to remove them – and reduce any liability they may have toward the trespassers.
If the owners said “Ah, sure yiz can stay there until the end of January (or whenever the site needs to be cleared for demolition)”, which would be the moral thing to do, then the owners would be taking responsibility for them. They would also be breaking planning regulations (this is not zoned as residential).
So they have to go through the procedure of kicking them out (or at least be seen to kick them out).
that’s exactly it
Let us be very clear about this. To say that we must be ‘reasonable’ etc and wait is not going to cause more to die needlessly on the streets. The government is full of landlords,property developers and their mates. They don’t give a damn because homelessness will never darken their doors. This is pure greed and selfishness
Waiting for pictures of a drum circle outside the four courts.
Lets say they leave it open, first of all its an illegal occupation of a privately owned building there is no getting around that basic fact, second are Glen Hansard and his rich mates gonna stump up for the insurance costs and accept any and all liabilities for say if a fire happens or someone is physically harmed by either living in a building listed as unfit to work in let alone live in, or due to one or several of the occupants becoming violent?
We can all sit around and sing kumbya as much as we want from the rooftops and get warm and fuzzy feelings, but this is not a longterm solution, its diverting funds and donations away from other charities that sorely need them at this time and who when this all falls apart are gonna be the ones expected to cleanup after this mess when hansard and dempsey et al disappear back to the states once christmas is over on their high horses, then Brendan Ogle and the rest of the professional protestors will move on to find the next populist news story to stick their agenda too to get media coverage.
That’s not the post truth way though.
‘post truth’ is a nonsense buzzword created (once again) for people to explain away why the Dems lost the US election and why Brexit happened.
It’s for those that cannot get their heads around these two facts. It’s nothing new, and the insistence that we are now IN a ‘post truth’ era ignores all the lies that came before the above mentioned changes. We’ve been living in ‘post truth’ for decades, don’t be suckered into thinking it’s something new.
Here’s the conservative Spectator on it: “Post-truth politics? Don’t be so patronising”
http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/11/post-truth-politics-dont-be-so-patronising/
Here’s the Guardian, the left’s take on it: “The idea of a ‘post-truth society’ is elitist and obnoxious”
https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2016/sep/19/the-idea-post-truth-society-elitist-obnoxious
‘Post truth’ is just a buzzword and journo band wagon nonsense. We’ve been here for decades.
+1 (de truth)
Excellent response to the issue VinLieger – anyone who tries to do anything is on a ‘high horse’. I detect a ‘who do you think you are?’ tone from you.
What exactly do you suggest we do with VACANT buildiings OWNED BY THE IRISH PEOPLE?
Wait for Fine Gael and Fianna Fail to turn them into warm cozy social housing units?
Twit.
Emm its not owned by the irish people as its not in Nama, its owned by a receiver
All property is theft, comrade!
The receivers are appointed by Nama – this property is in Nama’s portfolio not the receiver’s.
It’s owned by Nama.
That’s all great apart from the fact that Nama have publicly stated they don’t own it……
Agreed, There has been over €130,000 donated to Apollo House ‘go fund me’ in the last week for Irish Housing Network. Some (a lot) of this is money that would normally have gone to other charities who will have less to use in 2017.
Does anyone know if Irish Housing Network is set up to use this money prudently?
This logic could be applied to any number of issues regarding our political “Hot Topics” if we wanted to view it from your particular, pessimistic point of view. Honestly, you are correct in what you say, what if a fire or accident happened…what if someone go violent…what if…what if etc.
I feel that the idea of this whole thing is being lost on you and you are content on being the lone voice of reason and staunch opposition.
Whatever we disagree on, you have to admit that this “populist news story” is probably one that has really opened a dialogue about a subject that, being completely honest, has been overlooked and ignored by our government.
Whether is a vanity project for Celebrities or a political move from certain politicians…the idea of this to put roofs over homeless people heads and raise awareness of a growing problem effective a massive amount of people.
Merry Christmas Everyone.
Finally, some sense added to the comments.
I’ll be disappointed with Bodger et al if they can’t work an “Apollo Creed” title in here at some stage before New Year
how about you all stop deskchair-pontificating on the insurance concerns of Apollo and volunteer to redistribute shoeboxes? bring some christmas cheer to your fellow man!
maybe we have, maybe we haven’t, we’re all just random names in cyberspace.
some of us could even be normal.
“some of us could even be normal”
Says your man who gifted a poem to his missus for Christmas.
It’s the normal ones you’ve to be wary of Harold.
I see all these comments about Apollo House not being insured etc, but if someone approached an insurance company looking for PLI for Apollo would they be able to get this as it’s an ‘illegal’ occupation? I may be misunderstanding this.
The current occupiers lack the necessary insurable interest, which is very roughly speaking that only the party that stands to loose out in the event of the event insured against occurring can take out that insurance. In this instance that would be the owners of the building. Further, you can’t take out an insurance policy in someone else’s name.
Thanks for your reply. Very clear.
This is an illegal occupation of a privately owned building.