Tag Archives: Dublin City Council

Death in the Park – Home Less

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parkhomeless

Last night a man lost his life because he was not in the safety of his own home. He is one of thousands forced into homelessness in our country on our city streets.

The homeless executive – part of Dublin City Council, spend in the region of €100 million euros every year on ‘homeless services’. Yet tonight, children and adults will be handed a sleeping bag and told to sleep in the parks. The emergency number for beds is turning people away saying there are no beds and there is great uncertainty. Meantime 600 dwellings belonging to Dublin City Council lie empty as well as hundreds of council houses and flats that are boarded up waiting to be demolished for ‘rejuvenation’ that may never take place.
These residences need to be opened up immediately and refurbished so as people can be afforded their very basic human rights. So what happens the €100 million? How much is spent on fat cat salaries? How many of these so called non government organisations that receive the grants actually spend it on the homeless and ending homelessness?? These charity organisations are simply carrying out Government remits and they employ hundreds of individuals with the money that needs to be spent directly on the homeless. The ‘economy of the poor’, the ‘economy of the homeless’ is solely for the benefit and upkeep of the many agencies that are now falling foul of their original intention and their christian duty. They are in effect ‘poverty pimps’ and an arm of Government and have simply agency captured a lucrative market for their own pseudo sentimentalized, spiritualized culture. The housing of people is not a charity and never can be, it is a fundamental human and civil right. Open up the boarded up houses in our country, cities and towns and give the people a home.

These images above are from a recent protest outside Dublin City Hall regarding the take over of the YMCA at Aungier Street by Depaul Ireland who want to empty the premises of all the current residents so that they can set up their clients in residence there in line with so called Government policy.  At present YMCA accommodates alcohol and drug free male and female individuals who in principal are in recovery programs and abstinence programs from alcohol and drugs.  YMCA’s accommodation units at Aungier Street/Peters Row is one of the safest and productive in the city.  It has the trust of the entire community, an important thing.  That trust is now about to be broken as Depaul Ireland and the YMCA are going to turn this establishment into what can only be described as an emergency wet hostel accommodation.  The stability of the residents that are there at present is now being seriously undermined by these moves and their well being is in jeopardy.  DePaul and YMCA are merely agents of the State at this point carrying out a Government remit having gotten their hands on a substantial amount of tax payers money from the Homeless executive.  I have attended a number of meetings on this issue with DePaul, the YMCA and the residents and have called on them not to proceed with this new regime and practice and to continue with the successful model that has been in operation for a number of years  at the YMCA.  They are breaking the trust of the local community and the residents of the YMCA in order to access funds and build on their own empire at the expense of all.  Please show your support for the residents of the YMCA by contacting the YMCA (paulmcdonald@ymca.ie) and Depaul Ireland (kerry.anthony@depaulireland.org) and Dublin City Council Homeless section or myself (mannix.flynn@dublincity.ie)

I intend in the near future to create a formidable challenge to DePaul and the YMCA  to rethink their strategy in the interest of all.

91 Camden Street-Protecting the protected structure – update

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Here is the response from Dublin City Council in relation to alleged unlawful work taking place on the protected structure at 91 Camden Street Dublin.  

As requested at Tuesday’s SPC I outline below details regarding the alleged unauthorised development at 91 Camden Street.

The Planning Department received a complaint on 9 September 2013 that work was taking place to the rear gable and roof of this building. Due to the nature of the complaint, an initial inspection was carried out as a matter of urgency but the Enforcement Officer was unable to access the site until 16 September. When ispected, there was no one on site and no works taking place.

On 16 September, the Enforcement officer confirmed ownership of the building (not the person alleged by complainant). The Enforcement Section issued a Warning Letter on 19 September 2013 allowing the owners 2 weeks to respond. The normal response period is 4 weeks but given the seriousness of the case it was determined that more urgent action was required.

The response period expires Thursday, 3 October 2013. A follow up inspection will immediately be carried out to determine what futher action is to be taken.

See also comments in Archiseek and images of the original roof structure http://www.archiseek.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=6813&sid=ee9ee8da367b07fbd0b6578f030f8702&start=675#p117617

To extinguish or not to extinguish, that is the question.

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Off Grafton St. Dublin

Off Grafton St. Dublin

Today was the final day to raise concerns around the public right of way at Tangier Lane.

 

To Whom It May Concern,

I wish to raise some observations regarding the proposal to consider the extinguishment of the right of way at Tangier Lane Dublin 2.

While I understand that this process is being initiated in order to combat anti-social behaviour in the area, that anti social behaviour will simply go to the next laneway or the next street or the next cul-de-sac and, in my opinion, is not a valid way of dealing with public domain anti-social behaviour and is not a very sound reason for closing off these intricate and curious laneways that dot Dublin city.

In many instants where these orders have been carried out the public are the losers and many of these laneways simply end up as rather unkempt storage facilities for the many businesses operating in the laneways, while the public are met either with an inappropriate iron gate or a wooden gate which has very little aesthetic no relationship to the architecture or shop fronts in the area.

At present, Grafton St and its quarter are undergoing rejuvenation and major improvements.  Special architectural conservation legislation is rightly being applied to these environs and consideration needs to be taken of the negative impact that the closing down of Tangier lane would have on the vision for Grafton Street.  In my opinion, what is needed to combat anti-social behaviour is more public domain management and enforcement through rolling out of more effective community Gardai and an educational process.

Public lavatories and conveniences would go a long way to curtail much of what the users of Tangier lane have to witness as they go to and from work.  The many agencies that dispense needles to intravenous drug users could be informed much more effectively in relation to how much impact their product has when it is dumped in laneways by their many clients.

I note that this request came as a result of the BIDS company and representation to that company by a number of businesses in the area, indeed, I’ve spoken to staff at the Gaeity Theatre and listened to their concerns with regards health and safety.  Those same health and safety issues are evident on King Street as well as on Tangiers Lane.  Is it foreseeable that the next step we’ll be taking will be to extinguish public rights of way in main thoroughfares.

I can well understand the case for residents in residential areas wishing to have laneways at the backs of their houses made more secure from anti-social behaviour and burglary.  The case is somewhat different when it is laneways in the centre of our city where there are few residential populations.

Given that unacceptable social behaviour, the numbers of people who engage in it and where they congregate is on the rise, I feel that this whole issue of extinguishing public rights of way in residential and business areas and in general needs a special consideration

Finally, if this application is successful, I would respectfully ask that in the planning stages serious consideration be given to the gates that would be placed at the entrance of Tangier lane.  That the original old Irish enamel signage (in Gaelic and English) be retained and remain visible at the entrance and protected.  And that this gateway would be opened in the daytime and also within this consideration that a wrought Iron gate would be the appropriate material allowing visibility and the presence of Tangier lane to be retained as opposed to the situation for instance on Wicklow Street and other areas where solid gates have been used to block off completely all visibility of the laneways.  It should also be considered that the laneway not be used for extra storage of barrels and bottles and rubbish etc.

In conclusion, I would like to request an oral hearing in relation to this matter at this particular location.


Yours truly,

 

Cllr Mannix Flynn

Independent Cllr South East Area, Dublin

Tangier Lane Notice

State White Wash

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IRISH STATE WHITE WASH

The design for the Government/Irish State memorial as recommended in the http://www.childabusecommission.com/rpt/pdfs/ Ryan Report – Commission to enquire into child abuse in Residential Schools is seeking planning permission.   This premature gesture, in the form of a memorial/monument is more of a crushing blow to truth, transparency and justice than any of the horrendous testimonies contained in the Ryan Report itself.  This pseudo attempt by the State/Government of the Republic of Ireland to address the issues of torture and inhumane treatment of children in its care is an outrage in itself and an insult to those who are continuing to struggle for justice and accountability for the many crimes committed against them in State sanctioned and religious run institutions on the Island of Ireland.

Recently, the First Minister and deputy First Minster of Northern Ireland extended the terms for the http://www.nidirect.gov.uk/historical-institutional-abuse inquiry into historical institutional abuse in Northern Ireland between 1922 and 1995.  This is a Statutory Inquiry.  Many such inquiries have yet to be established throughout the length and breath of Ireland in every parish to uncover the truth of what happened to generations of children at the hands of the most trusted.  The more difficult issues of responsibility, accountability and securing justice for the abused still appear to be a long way off.  Justice is still being denied to thousands of individuals who were brutalised in institutions in the Irish Republic and few of those who did the brutalising have had to face any consequences for their behaviour. While these core matters remain unresolved, erecting this memorial is premature, a folly built on sand.

Memorials are about the past and the issues of physical, emotional and sexual abuse in Irish institutions are not yet historical. Certainly not for the women forced to toil in the http://www.magdalenelaundries.com Magdalene Laundries, nor for the children of the “http://www.indymedia.ie/article/100060 Bethany homes, Mother and baby homes, the trafficked children or those abused in day-schools,or the most recent report into the child prison,http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2012/1020/1224325505278.html St Patricks Institution Dublin, none of whom have yet had the wrongs done to them acknowledged, heard or redressed.  Until their stories are heard and honoured, erecting a ‘monument’ is, at the very least, insensitive.

Doubly so when it is sponsored by the same State which was a co-accused and a guilty party to their abuse. http://www.independent.ie/national-news/the-indemnity-deal-at-a-glance-1747692.html

 The time to memorialise an issue like this is only when all that can be put right has been put right.  That time is not yet here. 

This memorial is a whitewash and an avoidance of truth by the very people who were engaged in the joint venture of torture and inhumane treatment of generations of children, the Irish State.

view of walkway

“The reports on child abuse highlight how the law did not serve or apply to all members of Irish society equally. Despite the severity of the crimes revealed in the Ferns, Ryan, Murphy and Cloyne reports which range from physical assault to rape, very few perpetrators have been convicted.  The neglect and abuse in these reports can be categorized as torture, and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment under human rights law.  The children’s right to be free from slavery and forced labour were contravened.”

Amnesty International Ireland Report, October 2011

What can you do?

Write to Dublin City Council Planning Department and raise your objections to this obstacle to justice, truth and exclusion. The web reference on Dublin City Council  website 1196/12

Email your objections:Planning@dublincity.ie”Planning@dublincity.ie

view of walkway2walkway lightsAn inscription of the ‘apology’  of former Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern,  is proposed to dominate the tunnel.  This same person is responsible for the indemnity deal between the Irish State and Church. http://www.independent.ie/national-news/the-indemnity-deal-at-a-glance-1747692.html  (See also Bruce Arnold, ‘The Irish Gulag’ page 122  – The Secret Deal)

plans 2As you can see from the plans the tunnel is designed to come out at the head of a crucifix in the Garden of Remembrance.  A highly inappropriate symbol to be merged into any memorial to children who have been abused by the State and Church.White washView the plans of the ‘OPW’ memorial on our site at Essex Street, Temple Bar Dublin.