“Smash Landlords and Vultures – Universal Social Housing Now!”

On August 19, 2025August 19, 2025 By rebelbreezeIn Capitalism, Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Housing Struggle, Human Rights, Ireland, Irish Left, Irish Republicanism, Political Analysis, Socialist Revolution, SongLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 4 mins.)

The Irish socialist Republican group Anti-Imperialist Action today issued a call to revolution centred around a need for universal social housing to resolve the chronic housing crisis in Ireland (and in particular in Dublin).

This housing crisis has at January’s count left nearly 15,300 living on the streets or in emergency accommodation¹ with another unknown number in inappropriate accommodation such as sofa-surfing with friends and relatives or in IPAS centres for refugees.

Rampant property speculation has made a handful of bankers and speculators very rich and along with the social misery of thousands, facilitated the demolition of buildings of historical and architectural importance and their replacement by usually unsightly glass and concrete.²

Well, so what of AIA’s call? Different organisations make various calls at different times but do they have any effect? However, this one has some important distinctions, one of which is that this organisation actively practised its preaching when it called for the occupation of empty properties.

In May 2022 the AIA founded a sub-group called Revolutionary Housing League that occupied empty buildings in Dublin, refused to comply with court orders³ to evacuate or, in court, to agree to bail conditions that they would desist from further building occupations.

*‘James Connolly House’ in occupation by the RHL in May/ June 2022.* Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

The first building targeted on May 1^st was a former Seamen’s Institute building on Eden Quay, renamed Connolly House, metres from O’Connell Bridge, empty for years since the Salvation Army, a religion-based charity NGO, had lost government funding for its youth homeless accommodation project.

On the morning of June 9^th 2022 over a hundred Gardaí, with an armed unit on standby and a helicopter overhead, stormed the building⁴ and arrested the only occupants, two RHL supporters. In court later that day, they were bailed without making any promise not to re-occupy buildings.⁵

It seemed that the State was sensitive to the dangers of creating martyrs around the housing crisis.

Instead, RHL renewed its call for mass action across the country to occupy empty buildings. And went on to occupy other buildings, including Ionad Sean Heuston near the eponymous Bridge and another in Belvidere Road, eviction here also including massive police forces and helicopter.

Seen from the north bank of the Liffey, the Starry Plough flag flying high over the ‘Ionad Sean Heuston’ occupied building. The Heuston train station is behind the photographer while the Bridge is out of frame to the right. (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

Success for the RHA’s campaign depended on, if not a mass, at least a substantial take-up of its call to occupy empty buildings backed by civil disobedience to the courts. Neither happened and the AIA was far too small to carry the campaign on its own and so suspended it.

It is worth noting that though many organisations and individuals had agitated around housing, including the high-media-profile occupation of Apollo House in December 2016, backed by noted individuals,⁶ none had initiated the steps advocated by RHA/ AIA.

*‘Homes Not Hostels’ banner on Tara Street side of occupied Apollo House in December 2016 or January 2017. The building was later demolished and numbers of homeless people continued to rise.*
(Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

Amongst a general lack of social condition agitation among the post-GFA⁷ Irish Republican movement, only the socialist-Republican éirigí organisation had militantly taken up the housing struggle while calling for universal social housing — but it had not led a campaign of occupations.

The electoral left and some anarchists had occupied some empty buildings but had either left when threatened by the State or been evicted by security thugs backed up by Gardaí, without a follow-up of further occupations. Nor had they contextualised housing occupations as part of revolution.

So the record of AIA is stand-alone among the Republican and Socialist Left so far and therefore, one might speculate, failed to inspire a mass movement.

I am not ashamed to say that I supported AIA’s campaign although I did not take part myself in any of the occupations. However I did not view it as an immediate cause for revolution, nor do I now. The Irish gombeen⁸ State, I believe, can survive the supply of universal social housing.

The ‘rack-renting’ landlords, both big and small, cannot. But the Gombeen class, closely linked to the landlords and speculators will ditch them if they are confronted – not with the suffering of the masses, about which they care not, nor protests – but with the real alternative of social revolution.

The State has access to the means to fund such a campaign of new housing construction and of renovation/ repurposing of existing empty buildings⁹ by local municipal authorities.

In such a radical change of the Irish neo-colonial capitalist system, people would have more disposable income and purchasing would increase dramatically, stimulating production and expansion of goods and services and raising people’s living standards (and expectations).

Property speculation would be hugely reduced in scope but would continue – in hotels and office blocks, for example and big projects such as transport networks. And possibly in sale of land to State and local authorities for housing projects.

So, essentially a reformist project, not revolutionary at all, right? No, not at all necessarily. Reformist projects fought for with revolutionary intent and energy, teach the masses their potential when they unite in struggle. It also tests their leaders before their eyes, in their experience.

I see universal social housing therefore as a social necessity for the mass of people living on the streets, in hotel-rooms, sofa-surfing, in insecure and inappropriate housing, facing eviction from debt-mortgaged housing (the cost of which has already been paid several times over).

Universal social housing is a social necessity and an urgent one and it is an objective for which all true humanity in Ireland should strive. Revolutionaries should fight for it, pointing towards the evils of the capitalist system and the need for its replacement by a socialist system.

The struggle should be fought relying on the strength and capacity of the working people and will need to embody civil disobedience and sacrifice, while at the same the movement needs to safeguard capacity for other struggles such as against fascism, imperialism and colonialism.

In that context therefore, I think we should unreservedly support the call of the AIA’s statement today and the headline of this article.

End

FOOTNOTES

SOURCES

Anti-Imperialist Action statement on Telegram 19/08/2025

Homelessness statistics:https://www.focusireland.ie/press-release/homeless-figures-increase-to-a-record-high-of-15286-as-focus-Ireland-urge-government-to-prioritise-new-social-housing-for-vulnerable-families/

Empty property statistics: https://www.socialjustice.ie/article/vacancy-and-dereliction-ireland

APPENDIX

Text of Anti-Imperialist Action statement 19/08/2025:

Housing is a key part of the Republican struggle for National Liberation and Socialist Revolution in Ireland.

Housing is one of the key pressure points in the class struggle in Ireland today, due to the artificial housing crisis created by those in power, designed at driving up profits for landlords and imperialist housing vultures.

Since the days of Tone, Irish Republicans have recognised that land and housing are completely tied to the fight for freedom, and today it is by showing the Republican struggle will solve the land and housing issue once and for all, to the benefit of the working class, that Republicans can mobilise our class to join the fight.

There should be no doubt about the Republican position on housing. The 1916 Proclamation stated that ‘the ownership of Ireland by the People of Ireland’. The Democratic Programme placed public right above private property and stated, It shall be the first duty of the Government of the Republic to make provision … to secure that no child shall suffer hunger or cold from lack of food, clothing, or shelter’.

Landlords and foreign imperialist housing vultures have no place in the Republican vision of a Free Ireland, where homes would be provided by the Republic to all Citizens.

AIA advocates a system of Universal Social Housing as the Republican Housing System that guarantees all citizens a home, and rents based on ability to pay. This system is the death knell for landlords and vultures and it is why the garrison class resists it.

AIA has played a leading roll in the militant housing direct actions of recent years and will continue to do so.

If you want to fight the landlords and vultures and work to bring about the conditions for a Republican system of Universal Social Housing, then join AIA!

Raise the cry of the working class: Smash Landlords and Vultures – Universal Social Housing Now!

1 https://www.focusireland.ie/press-release/homeless-figures-increase-to-a-record-high-of-15286-as-focus-Ireland-urge-government-to-prioritise-new-social-housing-for-vulnerable-families/

2Taking history tour groups around Dublin I often comment that Dublin has suffered three period of architectural devastation, all in the last century: 1) the British artillery bombardment during the 1916 Rising; 2) the Irish neo-colonial State’s bombardment during its Civil War; 3) the property speculators’ rampage from the 1970s onwards.
Pete St. John, in his song Dublin In the Rare Aul’ Times:

“Fare thee well, sweet Anna Liffey,

I can no longer stay

And watch the new glass cages

Spring up along the quays …”

3In one of which I was wrongfully named myself since no evidence of my presence had been provided by the landlords to the court – merely an article by me describing the occupation of ‘Sean Heuston House’ reproducing some photographs taken inside. See https://rebelbreeze.com/2022/09/22/concert-in-occupied-building-murals-pickets-and-court-cases-the-revolutionary-housing-league-spreads-the-fight/

4 https://www.facebook.com/JamesConnollyHouse/videos/2172514896242639

5I passed by this building recently which, three years later, appeared to be still empty.

6The occupiers eventually agreed to leave under a mixture of threat and promises and the building was demolished.

7The Good Friday Agreements of 1999, the Irish instalment of the imperialist pacification process, following South Africa’s and Palestine’s versions, later to visit Colombia and Turkish Kurdistan.

8From the Irish word gaimbín, first applied to the hustlers opportunistically buying up Irish land in the midst of the disaster of the Great Starvation (1845-1849) but now applied to the Irish comprador or foreign-dependent native capitalist class.

9 https://www.socialjustice.ie/article/vacancy-and-dereliction-ireland

HELICOPTER AND MASSIVE GARDAÍ NUMBERS – FOR WHAT?

On July 14, 2023July 17, 2023 By rebelbreezeIn Capitalism, Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Housing Struggle, Human Rights, Ireland, Political Analysis3 Comments

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 4 mins.)

Late Tuesday night and early hours of Wednesday morning an operation with large numbers of Gardaí and their helicopter circling overhead disturbed residents in the north Dublin city centre area of Berkeley Road and surroundings.

It looked like drug bust, hostage rescue situation or siege, but it was none of those things, instead being an eviction of four housing activists.¹

*Supporters of the occupation by the RHL gathered at short notice by Berkeley Road during the Garda operation but were roughly pushed far back by Gardaí from the building under attack* (Photo: *RHL*)

The building had been “acquisitioned” by the Revolutionary Housing League which for a couple of years has been occupying buildings lying empty around Dublin in order to house homeless people and to inspire people to take over empty buildings to end the homeless crisis.

One of those buildings was the red-brick building on Eden Quay and corner of Marlborough Street; it had been operated by the Salvation Army as a night shelter for homeless young people but left empty for years after losing funding.

*Supporters in front of James Connolly House occupation over a year ago.* (Photo: *Rebel Breeze*)

On 1^st May 2022, RHL² activists ‘acquisitioned’ the building, renamed it James Connolly House and repaired a leak in the roof. In the early morning of 9^th June 2022, an estimated 100 Gardaí (some reportedly armed) stormed the building with a Garda helicopter circling overhead.

Two RHL activists performing overnight security on the building were arrested and brought to court, where they declined to be bound over or to give an undertaking that they would not return to the building.

The Salvation Army said that they were renovating the building in order to house Ukrainian refugees. Not only was there no evidence of that in the building when it was occupied but it is empty still, over a year after that eviction³.

Garda evictions have taken place around other acquisitions of empty properties and RHL activists have on each occasion refused to commit to an undertaking not to occupy other properties.

Rather, the RHL has called for empty buildings to be occupied around the country.

The eviction this week

*The massive Garda operation this week, including road-blocks, to evict RHL occupants of the Berkeley Road house*. (Photo: *RHL*)

After the eviction in Berkeley Road, four RHL activists were taken to Court where they followed the previous pattern of refusing to be bound over or to promise not to occupy other buildings. Nevertheless they were released with a threat of jail-time if they re-occupied.

The lessee of the building, advertising as Cabhrú and formerly Catholic Housing Aid Society (Chas), has faced allegations of improper use of that building and another, Fr. Scully House on nearby Gardiner Street, some of which were borne out in an investigation by Charities Regulator.⁴

*Supporters of the RHL occupiers outside the High Court* (Photo: *RHL*)

The housing crisis

The numbers of homeless people in the the Irish state passed 12,000 for the first time in May this year and over 4,000 of those are children,⁵ nor do those figures include people defaulting on their mortgage loans, sleeping on the street or ‘sofa-surfing’ with friends and relations.

According to figures published in April this year, there are over 100,000 empty homes within the Irish state, not counting holiday homes (the Berkeley Road one was empty for three years).

Housing the homeless on the face of it can be accomplished without the revolutionary overthrow of the State and its Gombeen⁶ ruling class. All that is necessary is a public housing program financed by the State, which it could easily accomplish.

However, the stubborn clinging of the Gombeens to keeping a wide high-return market for property speculators, bank funders and big landlords, year after year as the housing crisis worsens, seems to indicate that a revolutionary remedy is necessary.

This week the Taoiseach,⁷ Varadkar, inferred that a contributory cause of the housing crisis was that homeless people had turned down alternative accommodation, a nonsensical claim since one person’s declined accommodation could just be offered to the next.

Addressing him in the Leinster House parliament, Sinn Féin TD⁸ Pearse Doherty⁹ took him to task for inferring that the homeless were to blame for their situation, in response to which Varadkar denied accusing the homeless and ungraciously amended his statement to “some homeless people”.

He went on to say that homelessness has a number of causes but neglected to name the principal one, viz. that the State does not supply funds to municipal authorities to provide public housing, leaving property speculators, banks and big landlords free to exploit the housing ‘scarcity’.

According to media reports, Doherty neglected to take this opportunity to point out the real cause of the problem and the solution, which confirms the doubts of those who say that his party is “Fianna Fáil Mark II”,¹⁰ with no intention to fundamentally alter the economic system in the state.¹¹

*Revolutionary Housing League flag on top of the occupied building during the massive Garda operation* (Photo: *RHL*)

In conclusion

The housing crisis shows no sign of being resolved and the ruling class have ridden high-profile ‘shaming’ token occupations such as that of Apollo House in January 2017 without changing anything. RHL occupations do seem to show a way forward if they are widely emulated.

Heavy Garda operations on the one hand and comparatively light treatment by the courts on the other seems to indicate a determination not to tolerate this kind of direct action on homelessness while at the same time moderated by a fear of creating housing action martyrs.

Meanwhile the numbers of homeless grows by the month without any other credible solution in sight.

End.

FOOTNOTES

1This is the police force that has been described by its chief, Commissioner Drew Harris (formerly Asst. Commissioner of the colonial gendarmerie PSNI and therefore also MI5), as his “gang” but which seems unable to prevent serious assaults in the city centre, even in its main street.

2Originally Revolutionary Housing Union, later became RHL.

3And over 30 months after it first became empty.

4Some of those included a friend of the charity’s Chief Exeutive being accommodated in the building allegedly providing only for the elderly, rooms being let to short-stay students without proper guarantees or rights and one of the houses being used as a business address.

5 https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/politics/homelessness-figures-april-2023-12000-30085446

6From the Irish “gaimbín”, describing opportunist middlemen, now applied to the foreign-dependent native Irish capitalist class.

7Prime Minister of the Irish state.

8Teachta Dála, member of the Irish Parliament, equivalent to “MP”.

9Deputy leader of the party in the Irish parliament. Holly Cairns, leader of the Social Democrats also attacked Varadkar on the statement.

10Fianna Fáil is one of the two main government parties; originally a split from Sinn Féin led by De Valera, it has been in government more than any other party in the Irish state.

11A number of SF party leaders including its current president have publicly stated that big business has nothing to fear from their party.

SOURCES

Charities Regulator report: https://www.charitiesregulator.ie/en/information-for-the-public/our-news/2021/july/charities-regulator-publishes-inspectors-report-into-the-affairs-of-cabhru-housing-association-services

Irish Times articles regarding concerns over the years: https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/cabhru-housing-association/

Video about the RHL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSL453gVHAg

https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/politics/homelessness-figures-april-2023-12000-30085446

Taoiseach Varadkar and his controversial remark about the homeless: https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/taoiseach-refuses-to-apologise-for-saying-plenty-of-people-on-housing-list-refuse-offers-of-accommodation/a1546284704.html

REVOLUTIONARY BLOC AS PART OF HUGE COST OF LIVING PROTEST

On September 25, 2022September 25, 2022 By rebelbreezeIn Capitalism, Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Ireland, Irish Left, Irish Republicanism, Mass Media Criticism, Political Analysis, Song, Song in Struggle, Trade unions2 Comments

Clive Sulish

(Reading time: 4mins.)

Many thousands marched through Dublin’s city centre yesterday in protest against the soaring cost of living, pushed in particular by rising energy costs. Most mass media avoided estimating numbers except the ridiculous ‘estimate’ of 3,000 by the Irish Times daily¹.

As the Cost of Living Coalition convened a mass protest demonstration in Dublin, the Anti-Imperialist Action organisation called for a Revolutionary Bloc to meet at the James Connolly monument² in Beresford Place.

In mid-July, statistics published showed the average cost of living had risen above 9%. The average figure conceals the higher percentage rise in daily consumables such as food and drink that will rise higher still with price hikes by energy supply companies.

Companies are raising their prices steeply across at least the western world in a trend that began, despite much media discourse, prior to the Russian invasion of the Ukraine. But Ireland emerges as the most expensive country in the EU with Dublin the most expensive city there by far³.

SPEECHES FOR REVOLUTION & AGAINST REPRESSION

At the Connolly monument, people gathered with banners about the housing struggle and against NATO, along with placards and flags, of which latter the most common was the green-and-gold version of the “Starry Plough”, flag of the Irish Citizen Army⁴.

The cathaoirleach (chairperson) welcomed people, introduced the purpose of the meeting as being to protest the soaring cost of living and introduced the first speaker, from the Revolutionary Housing League. The RHL speaker outlined their program of direct action.

“What can be more direct than to occupy empty buildings?” he asked those assembled. He recounted some of the recent actions of the RHL and said that they are attracting attention and support, ending by calling on others to get involved⁵.

The second speaker, introduced as a revolutionary socialist anti-imperialist, went through a list of ills brought by the capitalist system, including lack of housing, selling off our resources and infrastructure, disregard for our language, environmental destruction and danger of nuclear war.

For all said the speaker, the Irish national bourgeoisie are guilty, “the Gombeens, a class unable even to free their own country”. “We need broad fronts to fight all these attacks of class war”, he said “but they must be directed openly against capitalism and imperialism.”

The final speaker, a socialist Republican, represented the newly-formed End State Repression campaign group. Those wanting to oppose rising prices, he emphasised, could not share their struggle with those intending to enter a coalition with Fiann Fáil or Fine Gael.

He also recalled how when protests against the bank bailouts and student fee hikes were getting going in 2010, they were met with state violence through the Gardaí. As the resistance builds, it will get attacked, he said but “we can’t allow them to drive us off the streets again.”

Many drivers passing the rally in vehicles, private and of work – including public transport — sounded their horns in solidarity, giving rise to cheers from the protesters.

MARCH TO BLACKWATER

The assembled then set off in two lines along Custom House Quay, across Talbot Memorial Bridge and then eastward along the quays. On the way they shouted slogans including “One, two, three, four – Housing crisis no more!” and “Only solution: Revolution!”

Revolutionary Bloc outside Blackwater’s offices (*Photo:* *Rebel Breeze*)

Other slogans include “Whose streets? Our streets!” “Whose Republic? Our Republic!” and “High rent, high taxes – fight back!”

The marchers stopped upon reaching the offices Blackwater Asset Management Company which boasts its background in “coming from the following sectors, Police Force, Legal Profession, Defence Forces, Financial Services & Private Security sectors”.

The crowd expressed its disapproval of the actions of this company. A speaker assured all that any attack on housing activists will be met with resistance. Two songs were sung there too, including Connolly’s Be Moderate/ We Only Want the Earth.⁶

THE BLOC MEETS THE MAIN MARCH

The Bloc marchers passed through the high-rise apartment blocs in the area before going on to Pearse Street and marching to the junction with D’Olier Street, where they met the main march of many thousands⁷ rounding Trinity College and still coming down from O’Connell Street.

Here the revolutionary bloc displayed their banners and placards and chanted some slogans. Many in the crowd marching past gave signs of appreciation and people in an anarchist bloc shouted “Solidarity”, raising clenched fists, giving rise to equal response from the Bloc⁸.

Section of the main cost of living protest march in D’Olier Street and rounding junction with Pearse Street. (*Photo:* *Rebel Breeze*)

The large Sinn Féin⁹ section aroused shouts of “No Collusion! One Solution! Revolution!” from the Bloc. The earlier slogan of “1,2,3,4 – Housing crisis no more!” segued for awhile into “5,6,7,8 – Smash the Free State!”

The main Dublin march was organised by the Cost of Living Coalition of 30 organisations, including People Before Profit but also Sinn Féin, which is on a clear trajectory to enter Government in the near future but in coalition with traditional neo-liberal capitalist political parties.

Revolutionary Bloc meets main march at junction Pearse Street and D’Olier Street. (*Photo:* *Rebel Breeze*)

The CLC also includes trade unions which many accused of not mobilising for the protest.

Derry city saw a small protest against the rising cost of living also.

A far-Right march in Cork which was addressed by a representative of the fascist National Party attracted little more than 150. Ostensibly against the housing crisis, speakers of course attacked immigration despite it having no connection to the State failure to build affordable public housing.

FB speeded up video of entire main march (recommend mute the sound): https://www.facebook.com/michael.caul.56/videos/3279662202295870

A marcher in Dublin carrying a placard calling for an end to immigration until the housing crisis were solved gave rise to a chorus of “Home for All!” from the Revolutionary Bloc, calls echoed by some among the passing marchers.

Anarchist section in the main march indicating solidarity with the Revolutionary Bloc. (*Photo:* *Rebel Breeze*)

Gardaí on foot and in patrol cars tailing the main march were greeted, as they passed the Revolutionary Bloc, with shouts linking Drew Harris¹⁰, Commissioner of the police force of the Irish State, to the British Intelligence Service MI5.

A notable feature of both marches was the patience with the interruption to their journeys of private and public transport drivers and, indeed, the signs of support from many, including beeping of horns and hand signals such as the ‘thumbs-up’ and even the occasional clenched fist.

end.

FOOTNOTES

1The Irish Times has a track record of drastically reducing the estimated numbers in reports of anti-government demonstrations, demonstrated most strikingly during the giant water protest marches. It gave the figure 3,000 in leading paragraph to its original twitter report but more recently amended that on line to “several thousand”. The Sunday Mirror reported 20,000 and supporters estimated between 15,000 and 20,000.

2The monument includes a representation in bronze of the Scottish-Irish revolutionary James Connolly, across the road from where he had his office in Liberty Hall (the two-storey building was destroyed by British shelling in 1916 and has since been replaced by a tall man-storey building, HQ of the SIPTU union. Connolly was one of 16 executed by the British in 1916 after the Rising that year.

3See statistics in Useful Links, including https://www.independent.ie/business/personal-finance/irelands-cost-of-living-soars-above-eu-average-as-new-report-reveals-just-how-much-prices-are-rising-41774596.html

4The ICA was formed to defend striking workers from police attacks during the 1913 Lockout in Dublin. It was based on trade union membership and took a prominent role in the 1916 Rising, with a much-reduced one in the War of Independence (1919-1921) and the ensuing Civil War (1922-1923). The ICA recruited women as well as men and some of the women held officer positions, possibly the first revolutionary organisation, certainly the first socialist-based one to do so.

5See https://rebelbreeze.com/2022/09/22/concert-in-occupied-building-murals-pickets-and-court-cases-the-revolutionary-housing-league-spreads-the-fight/

6The lyrics were composed by James Connolly and published in hist Songs of Freedom in New York in 1907. The title was the ironic “Be Moderate” but has come to be known from the refrain as “We Only Want the Earth”. Furthermore, arranged to the air of “A Nation Once Again”, it provides a chorus of “We Only Want the Earth!”

7Most media would only state “thousands” or “many thousands”, but the Irish Times had the audacity to claim the ridiculously low number of 3,000! Estimates by participants varied from 10,000 to 20,000 (latter also figure of the Sunday Mirror).

8It seemed likely that had the Revolutionary Bloc been widely publicised earlier that it would have been supported by many individuals and at some other organisations.

9The former revolutionary republican party rarely mobilises its large membership for street protests as these days it is more concerned with votes in elections. However, SF is part of the Cost of Living Coalitionand SF’s President, Mary Lou MacDonald, was one of the scheduled speakers at the main march rally.

10Immediately prior to his current appointment, Drew Harris was Deputy Chief Constable of the sectarian British colonial gendarmerie, the Police Force of Northern Ireland which, until 2001, was the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

USEFUL LINKS

Anti-Imperialist Action:

End State Repression campaign:

Mass media march reports: https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/cost-living-protest-live-updates-28070843

https://www.sundayworld.com/news/irish-news/crowd-of-20000-march-through-dublin-city-centre-in-massive-protest-over-cost-of-living-crisis/1154985225.html

Other reports: https://www.facebook.com/michael.caul.56/videos/3279662202295870

Cost of living statistics: https://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/country/ireland

https://www.independent.ie/business/personal-finance/irelands-cost-of-living-soars-above-eu-average-as-new-report-reveals-just-how-much-prices-are-rising-41774596.html

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/2022/07/14/inflation-hits-38-year-peak-of-91-as-cost-of-living-crisis-worsens/

THE REVOLUTIONARY HOUSING LEAGUE SPREADS THE FIGHT — concert in occupied building, murals, pickets and court appearances

On September 22, 2022August 19, 2025 By rebelbreezeIn Capitalism, Current Affairs Comment, Housing Struggle, Human Rights, Irish Left, Irish Republicanism, Political Analysis2 Comments

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 6 mins.)

For a group that first came into public view on May 1^st with an occupation of a building empty for two years, the Revolutionary Housing League has certainly been busy. At least two further acquisitions¹ have followed since.

In addition, a hundred police with vehicles and helicopter have been videoed in one eviction of two activists; four activists have appeared defiantly in court in different cases and the High Court has granted injunction to companies against activists.

As I write this another eviction is being planned, resistance is being organised and further repression through courts and jail seem certain. The RHL are fighting the system, fighting a fundamental social wrong acknowledged by almost everyone.

SHORT HISTORY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY HOUSING LEAGUE

In 1^st May 2022 activists acquired Lefroy House on Dublin’s Eden Quay, formerly used by the religious-based NGO, the Salvation Army to provide night-beds for young homeless people but empty for two years. The activists renamed the building Connolly² House.

A decorated tile at the door of Connolly House in May/June 2022 (*Photo: D.Breatnach*)

At that time the occupiers were calling themselves the Revolutionary Workers’ Union though their council subsequently formed the Revolutionary Housing League.

The Salvation Army took the occupants to court, claiming the SA had been renovating the house in order to accommodate Ukrainian refugees. Despite the absence of evidence of any renovation work and the presence of a leaky roof (fixed by the activists!), the court granted the injunction.

The occupiers called for a rally against eviction on 2^nd June and a large crowd of people of various political backgrounds, organisations and independents, arrived to support but of course, the eviction forces could wait and choose their time.

Musician performing and section of crowd at rally against eviction outside Connolly House (*Photo: D.Breatnach*)

On June 9^th at 5.45 a.m early passers-by were amazed to see 100 Gardaí³ with a number of vehicles, supported by a helicopter, including armed police⁴, assault the building to take possession of it for the SA and to arrest two activist occupants. A video of the event taken by a passer-by went viral.

Eviction video: https://www.facebook.com/JamesConnollyHouse/videos/2172514896242639

Both activists were later released on their own surety bail to await court process and the building was fortified against being retaken. To this date it remains empty.

On 13^th June, the housing activists convened a protest picket outside Store Street Garda station.

Picket on Store Street Garda Station following eviction of James Connolly House (*Photo: D.Breatnach*)

Story of Connolly House: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSL453gVHAg

The RHL had acquired another site⁵, this one having been a building for homeless people of the municipality, Dublin City Council, but also empty for a long period. On June 10^th Gardaí arrested two activists near the building and they too are being processed by the courts.

After that, the RHL occupied a large warehouse-type building on the very north bank of the Liffey by Sean Heuston Bridge which they named, naturally enough, Ionad⁶ Seán Heuston. They opened it as emergency accommodation and held talks and discussions within it.

Parkgate Street front of Ionad Seán Heuston in early September 2022 (*Photo: D.Breatnach*)

Employees of Pinnacle Security company with bolt-cutters entered the site on 3^rd September but failed to evict residents and on the 5^th September RHL activists picketed the company which, as a consequence, withdrew from acting as security for Chartered Land, owners of the site.

Pinnacle Security staff, one armed with bolt-cutters, entered Ionad Seán Heuston on 3rd September but failed to intimidate the residents into leaving. Two days later, RHL picketed their HQ and were given a written undertaking that the company would no longer carry out security for Chartered Land on the site. (*Photo: Revolutionary Housing League*)

The building owner’s interests are managed by Davy Platform ICAV, acting on behalf of its sub-fund the Phoenix Sub-fund but ultimately, the owner is Chartered Land which intends to build high-rental apartments on the site.

Joe O’Reilly is the property speculator tycoon behind Chartered Land, once the biggest debtor to NAMA whose responsible officer Conor Owens permitted O’Reilly to transfer his Moore Street, ILAC and Dundrum Shopping Centre holdings to Hammerson, a British-based property company.

Plan of Joe O’Reilly’s mansion while he owed NAMA €3 Billion which paid him a salary of €200,000 to ‘order his affairs’ (*Image source:https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2063815/3bn-debtor-living-life-OReilly-Developer-sprawling-Dublin-mansion.html*)

Joe O’Reilly after appearing as a witness in criminal court in 2015 (*Photo: Irish Independent*)

That transfer gave Hammerson control of properties O’Reilly’s planning permission from Dublin City Council for a giant “shopping mall” there which they have now changed but again approved by DCC’s Planning Officer and which is under appeal to An Bord Pleanála.

Conor Owens is now Ireland Director for Hammerson.

Lawyers for O’Reilly named a number of individuals as being in occupation of the property, at least two of them apparently on the basis of photographs of the interior shared by the them on social media. Last Thursday a number appeared in court on applications for injunctions against them.

One who had not been named, a homeless individual, made an emotional appeal for he and his partner to be allowed to stay and the occupants to provide services to more homeless people. Another denied he had been an occupant but had merely shared photos on social media.

That latter individual had the injunction against him removed but was asked to sign an undertaking he would not enter the building, which he declined to do, remarking that he should not even have had to attend the High Court in the first place.

Sean Doyle of the RHL declared that the action they were taking was necessary and quoted James Connolly: We believe in constitutional action in normal times; we believe in revolutionary action in exceptional times. “These are certainly exceptional times”, Doyle remarked.

The judge went ahead and granted the injunction and required all occupants to evacuate building by Wednesday 21^st (i.e as this piece was being concluded).

The RHL organised a picket and temporary protest occupation of Davy stockbrokers, who were handling procedures for Joe O’Reilly, the property tycoon owner of the site of Ionad Seán Heuston.

RHL picket and temporary occupation of Davy stockbrokers (*Photo: Revolutionary Housing League*)

Last weekend the RHL organised a solidarity concert at Ionad Seán Heuston with somewhere between 150 to 200 in attendance and with at least two bands posting on social media their delight at having performed there.

O’Reilly’s legal team claimed “a flagrant breach of the court order”.

The RHL have called a solidarity rally against the eviction at the site for tomorrow at 10am.

Band performing to crowd at Ionad Seán Heuston — “a flagrant breach of court order” according to property tycoon’s lawyers. (*Photo: Revolutionary Housing League*)

THE FUTURE

Whatever the outcome of the eviction intended for this particular building or the eventual result of court cases, it seems clear that the RHL are on a collision course with the State and its protection of landlords and property speculators.

While some may look askance at such a contest, one may ask legitimately what other course of action is effective and viable?

Marches and short-term symbolic occupations of individual buildings, including the high-profile Apollo House one supported by prominent individuals in December 2016, though possibly raising awareness, have not made a single dent in the homeless crisis.

Section of the crowd at rally outside Apollo House 11 January 2016. Events such as these mobilised opinion but did not change the situation as indeed it worsened (*Photo: D.Breatnach*)

Indeed, the situation seems to have got steadily worse – at least for those seeking accommodation; while on the other hand clearly landlords, letting agencies, property speculators, vulture funds and the very banks are raking in their profits.

OVER 10,000 HOMELESS INCLUDING 2,503 CHILDREN

Earlier this year the State admitted that homeless figures had passed ten thousand, for the first time since the covid pandemic⁷, a statistic that includes the shocking figure of 2,503 children.⁸

And a recent report states that the levels of homelessness are under-estimated because of the accounting system used by the State, which focuses on rough sleepers and those accessing emergency accommodation⁹.

Mural representing revolutionary Irish socialist Republican Constance Markievicz and the outline in red stars of “the Starry Plough” (*Ursa mayor*), one of the impressive murals inside Ionad Seán Heuston (*Photo: Rebel Breeze*).

Sofa-surfing, rotating between friends and family, precarious rental arrangements all figure in homelessness but are not measured or accounted for by the State. Indeed these features of homelessness have been known for decades.

Clearly too, the obvious solution, the release of substantial funds by the State to local authorities to build public housing for affordable rent, is not favoured by any of the Government political parties.¹⁰

Apart from the general inclination of the ‘political class’ to serve big business many have direct interests in the housing situation, as an audit of TDs (member of the Irish Parliament) found over 80, i.e more than half, are landlords or own property – or both.¹¹

Faced with such a situation it is clear that only a very substantial shock to the political system has any hope of having a serious impact on the housing crisis. Though the solution need not be revolutionary, all the evidence is that the methods do indeed have to be so¹².

An interesting side-aspect of the RHL’s occupation has been the use of innovative and highly-effective art in banners and murals. Also the holding of a concert and some trad music sessions in acquired buildings, along with educational talks, discussions and Irish language classes.

Another of the murals in Ionad Seán Heuston, a representation of the profile of Pádraig Mac Piarais/ Patrick Pearse, revolutionary Irish Republican, writer, educator, executed by British firing squad in 1916. His slogan translates as: “A country with out its language (is) a country without a soul”. (*Photo: Revolutionary Housing League*)

The RHL is a small organisation fighting the State Goliath which is representing the Philistines of property speculators, vulture funds and banks. They deserve our support in whatever measure we are able to give, in attending events and spreading the word.

Indeed, they have called for wider action – the RHL has on a number of occasions called on people to do what they are doing, to occupy the thousands of empty buildings which, if people did, would transform this struggle into a mass movement.

With no other viable solution in sight, surely we should support the RHL? Do we not owe it to those on the street or struggling to pay mortgages or high rents? Do we not owe to the children now, the future generation that will be blighted unless we act?

End.

The Starry Plough flag of the Irish Citizen Army in the early decades of the 20th Century flies above Ionad Seán Heuston (*Photo credit Revolutionary Housing League, taken from Seán Heuston Bridge*)

FOOTNOTES

1The RHL call their taking of empty properties “acquisitions” in the name of the people.

2After notable socialist revolutionary, trade union organiser, journalist, historian and writer James Connolly, executed by British firing squad in 1916.

3The police force of the Irish State is called An Garda Síochána and the plural of its members, “Gardaí”, singular “Garda”.

4The Garda Síochána is essentially an unarmed police force with an armed response section, the latter which however seems to be growing and more in evidence in different situations.

5They named that one Liam Mellows House in honour of socialist Irish Republican and former member of the Irish parliament, the Dáil, executed during the Civil War by the Irish State in retaliation on 8^th December 1922.

6Ionad in Irish means “place/ location/situation”.

7 https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/over-10000-people-homeless-in-ireland-for-first-time-since-pandemic-1311934.html

8 https://www.independent.ie/news/homeless-figures-rise-to-10325-including-3028-children-41787023.html

9 https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/narrow-definition-of-homelessness-failing-to-respond-to-true-nature-of-crisis-1365817.html

10Sinn Féin’s latest housing policy indicates a crash building program for “affordable homes” but unclear whether to rent or own. Election promises tend to be taken with a pinch of salt by commentators; SF Councillors on Dublin City Council voted public land sold to developers. In addition, a future government including SF would almost certainly include a former government party in the coalition.

11 https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/2022/08/24/almost-80-tds-and-senators-are-landlords-property-owners-or-both/

12The State has the power to put empty properties to use to eliminate all homelessness immediately and the Government can divert funds towards starting a big housing construction program which would give everyone good quality affordable homes in a couple of years. It does not do so because that would upset the profits of the property speculators, property management companies and the banks, their lenders.

SOURCES & FURTHER INFORMATION

Revolutionary Housing League: https://www.facebook.com/JamesConnollyHouse

on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rhlireland/status/1562495657814138880

Video interview as RHL awaits eviction force: https://www.facebook.com/JamesConnollyHouse/videos/435978475290460

Official homeless figures: https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/over-10000-people-homeless-in-ireland-for-first-time-since-pandemic-1311934.html

https://www.independent.ie/news/homeless-figures-rise-to-10325-including-3028-children-41787023.html

A total of 115 homeless people died in Dublin 2021, more than double the number who died in 2019: https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40853996.html

Discussion of number of empty buildings per homeless people: https://www.thejournal.ie/factcheck-16-vacant-homes-per-homeless-person-ireland-5801978-Jul2022/

https://www.thejournal.ie/200-asylum-seekers-without-accommodation-ireland-5862168-Sep2022/?

Narrow definition of homelessness by Irish State: https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/narrow-definition-of-homelessness-failing-to-respond-to-true-nature-of-crisis-1365817.html

RWG/ RHL acquisition of Connolly House: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/workers-group-occupying-eden-quay-property-to-defy-court-order-1.488610

Property speculator seeks eviction of occupants Seán Heuston House: https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/high-court-injunction-sought-for-alleged-illegal-occupation-of-dublin-building-1361850.html

Joe O’Reilly (Chartered Land): https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2063815/3bn-debtor-living-life-OReilly-Developer-sprawling-Dublin-mansion.html

Property Speculator seeks further legal action agains RHL: https://www.thejournal.ie/high-court-revolutionary-housing-league-parkgate-house-5871136-Sep2022/

Concert a “flagrant breach of court order”: https://www.msn.com/en-ie/news/newsireland/concert-held-in-property-occupied-by-homeless-campaigners-a-flagrant-breach-of-court-order/ar-AA122xZA?li=BBr5KbJ

Ex-NAMA senior officer now Director of Hammerson Ireland: https://europe-re.com/hammerson-appoints-connor-owens-as-director-of-ireland/68421#:~:text=Hammerson%20has%20appointed%20Connor%20Owens,ILAC%20Centre%2C%20and%20Swords%20Pavilions.

Previous high-profile housing activist occupations:

Apollo House December 2016: https://www.thejournal.ie/apollo-house-glen-hansard-hozier-performance-homeless-3151048-Dec2016/

Frederick Street: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/what-happened-who-is-involved-and-why-are-activists-occupying-vacant-properties-1.3627980