Republican News · Thursday 17 July 2003

Putting private property rights first

BY JOANNE CORCORAN

We at An Phoblacht's Parnell Square HQ had new neighbours this week, albeit very briefly, when a group of squatting anarchists with a point to make about the housing crisis moved into a building several doors down.

Autonomous Community Space released a press statement on Sunday saying they were planning to take over 41 Parnell Square, a building that has lain derelict for the last eleven years. The first indication that they had arrived was a handpainted banner hung out of one of the dirty windows on Monday.

The group explained they were occupying the building to highlight a number of issues, including spiralling rents and the lack of affordable housing. Spokesperson for the activists, Cian O'Callaghan, said: "There are a ridiculous number of empty buildings in Dublin - boarded up, unused, waiting for the highest price so they can be turned into cramped apartments that no one can afford. Meanwhile, people sleep on the streets, students work 30 hours on top of college so they can pay exorbitant suburban rents, and families are forced into unsuitable rented accommodation because they have no hope of affording their own home."

Events took a violent turn on Monday afternoon, however, when the building's owner, accompanied by a few heavies, took a long overdue interest in his property and turned up to sort out his new tenants, armed with sledgehammers and crowbars.

People began to gather around the building and witnessed one of the young men inside receive a fairly nasty blow to the head with a crowbar. At this point, the group, made up mostly of young people, decided to call the gardaí. However, the gardaí, according to the squatters, didn't respond to their call (in attire and appearance, the Automomous Collective people look suspiciously like the Reclaim the Streets protestors, who have had similarly unsympathetic treatment from the guardians of law and order). Instead, the gardaí came running when the owner rang them to say he had illegal squatters on his premises and that there had been some trouble.

As An Phoblacht arrived on scene, we were greeted with chaos. The young man who had been attacked was sitting on the steps of the building with blood dripping down his face. A friend of his was haphazardly trying to apply first aid to the deep gash on his head. Several protestors were leaning out the window with bewildered, scared looks on their faces, and two police vans and an ambulance were pulling up.

A number of gardaí stood on the steps beside the increasingly incoherent young man who'd had his head bashed in, but none were paying him any attention. They were instead focusing on the door. The owner had disappeared, but a young woman inside the house told us he had made claims beforehand that they had been pelting him with wood and bricks and had started the trouble.

Several of the youngsters outside started to approach us at this point to tell us their side of the tale. One young woman said that the building must be a protected site and that she reckoned the owner was waiting for it to fall down. Another young man, who was obviously shaken up, said that he couldn't believe that the police would come to protect the building, and not them, from sledgehammers and crowbars.

One young woman said it was incredible that habitable buildings all over the city could lie idle while their value soared. She said that the group's aim is to reclaim space that is just boarded up and to make a point to the government.

The unfortunate lesson of the day the anarchists were evicted was that the state cares more about private property rights than the rights of individuals.