Naoise Dolan voices support for Anne Devlin Community Centre: "Of course Dubliners are occupying long-vacant buildings. Wouldn't you?"

Dublin novelist Naoise Dolan has voiced her support for the Anne Devlin Community Centre on Instagram.

The Anne Devlin Community Centre, named after the Irish republican, is an activist-led community space established last month by the Revolutionary Housing League (RHL) Ireland in the Ardee House pub in Dublin's Liberties.

"As of last year, there were 14,000 empty homes and commercial properties in Dublin," Dolan said.

"Dubliners are shut out from using these buildings in a city where at least 11,000 people are homeless."

She made the point that around 1 in 10 properties on Dublin's rental market are Airbnbs, and that the conditions around operating an Airbnb in Ireland are not properly enforced.

The site of the pub is privately owned by Black Sheep Investments and Jack Teeling, who founded the Teeling Whiskey Company in 2012.

"What are we supposed to do?" she continued.

"Just accept that this is happening? Write letters to politicians asking them to resolve the same housing crisis they themselves engineered? It's a hilarious underestimation of Dubliners' dignity and of our common sense to expect us to believe that lobbying and appealing to authorities will fix this. It hasn't. It won't."

"Of course, Dubliners are occupying a long-vacant building. Wouldn't you?"

Activists occupied the long-vacant pub to protest dereliction and demand public space over corporate development.

The organisers set up the building to function as a self-organised working-class hub with a community cafe. library and meeting rooms that would host workshops, classes and social events.

On May 27, activists from the RHL were under an interim order by the High Court restraining their trespass on the premises.

At a High Court hearing on June 3, RHL members Eoghan Lynch and Seán Doyle identified themselves as occupants of Ardee House and indicated that they intended to contest the legal proceedings. The court adjourned the case, which is set to continue next week, to allow them to obtain legal advice.

Judge Brian Creegan opted not to continue the order to vacate the property; the RHL continues to operate activities from Ardee House under limitations.

 

View this post on Instagram.

 

A post shared by Naoise Dolan (@naoisedolan)