Views from Above and Below Ireland is at a crossroads, indeed it is in crisis. But the cause of the crisis is not some external agency or force. The cause of the crisis is within. There are two ways of looking at Ireland’s economic fortunes. There is a view from the top and a view… Read more »

Eugene Quinn and David Moriarty Eugene Quinn is National Director of the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) Ireland, a position he has held since 2006. He was Chair of the Limerick Integration Working Group 2010-22. He was a member of the McMahon Working Group on the Protection Process, which reported to Government in June 2015. From… Read more »

Written by Dr. Laura Bambrick Dr Laura Bambrick is the Social Policy & Employment Affairs Officer at the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. Congress is the umbrella body for 46 unions and seven associate members, representing over 700,000 workers and their families, and the largest civil society organisation on the island of Ireland. Introduction The… Read more »

“I can’t afford to keep the place warm. The second the heater goes off it’s freezing, there’s no double glazing, no insulation. The children go to bed early with extra blankets, it’s the only way to keep them warm […] I sit up with a candle rather than turn on the lights because I can’t afford the electric.”

Most people identify vacancy and dereliction based on how something looks – whether it is run down, in poor condition, or unoccupied. While this is undoubtedly a quick way of spotting buildings and sites in need of attention, it excludes properties that might be vacant or derelict but don’t match these subjective aesthetic registers – perhaps not visible from street level or where exteriors are maintained. In some cases, a neighbour might mow the lawn of an adjacent vacant home to avoid it becoming an eyesore. Likewise, vacant units in apartment buildings can be especially difficult for anyone assessing vacancy from the street level.

In the early 1990s, Professor Anthony Clare addressed a Dublin conference audience of some 300 people. It was an inspiring address and among the words that resonated were the following: “‘The elderly’ are not ‘them, out there’; ‘the elderly’ are us, writ large writ later.” Pithy and fundamentally true, it is a good starting point… Read more »