Over the last week the massive abandoned Grangegorman complex has been reoccupied by squatters including many of those who were eviced last year. As our video shows after the High Court injunction last year the owners who took posession did nothing to bring this huge area back into use for housing. The sole interest seems to have been in selling it, recently it was sold and when the new owners didn’t bother with the 24 hour security on site it was reoccupied.
Some 30 people had been living in the various buildings that make up the Grangegorman complex prior to the High Court injunction. The injunction ment that those 30 all had to try and find alternative accommodation as a time when the housing crisis in Dublin has deepened and rents have soared above levels affordable even to someone earning two times the minimum wage.
Over the last week the massive abandoned Grangegorman complex has been reoccupied by squatters including many of those who were eviced last year. As our video shows after the High Court injunction last year the owners who took posession did nothing to bring this huge area back into use for housing. The sole interest seems to have been in selling it, recently it was sold and when the new owners didn’t bother with the 24 hour security on site it was reoccupied.
Some 30 people had been living in the various buildings that make up the Grangegorman complex prior to the High Court injunction. The injunction ment that those 30 all had to try and find alternative accommodation as a time when the housing crisis in Dublin has deepened and rents have soared above levels affordable even to someone earning two times the minimum wage.
The (re) occupiers held an open day last Saturday, inviting people to visit the complex they wrote "We know that Squat City / Grangegorman was a very special place for a lot of people. Especially after the eviction attempt in March last year, and the previous occupants’ successful resistance to it, it became a symbol for something much bigger than itself. It gave hope to so many people and reminded us that the power of the ruling class and their accomplices, the police, is not absolute after all.
However, in the end, the previous occupants were taken to court, and after fighting the case for months, they ultimately lost2. Morale was low, and tensions high, and any appetite for further resistence that may have been there at one point had been depleted. The moral of the story was clear: “You had your fun, but now justice has prevailed. The rightful owner has their property back, and now it will be sold so it can be developed into something proper. Your squatty bullshit is over. There’s no point trying to fight us because we’ll always win in the end.”
They had it all sewn up. They boarded up all the houses. They razor-wired all the fences. They painted over all the graffiti. They got security to occupy the place 24/7. It was over, it was time to move on. When it was sold in the end, there was no mention of it having ever been the centre of Dublin’s squatting movement, or a symbol of resistance for a whole city. It was like it never happened.
But lest you doubt that it ever happened, come to the open day on Saturday. We want to show you that it is indeed all real. We want to rekindle the flame that was lit last March. We want to introduce ourselves to our neighbours and show them the space that was so dear to them before, that they feared they would never see again. Once again there is a giant gaping hole in the fabric of consensus reality. Squat City lives! …and now it’s reality who has to negotiate with us."
On Wednesday morning we heard that an apparent illegal eviction attempt was underway, the Resist Grangegorman’s Eviction page on Facebook reported that
"So basically, at about half six in the morning, or possibly earlier, five private security goons broke into the compound with the intention of evicting us. They weren’t bailiffs, just goons, they hadn’t been to court or anything.
Reluctantly, we got out of bed. Soon the word got around and we were joined by many of our friends. The goons were significantly outnumbered, and the cops who were there basically told them to leave. They tried to fight us for a while but ultimately they no choice, so they left, and we won! We had been feeling very confident in our ability to resist an attempted eviction but it feels especially great to have won before most of our friends are even out of bed!"
The (UK) Times is reporting that 20 people are currently living on the site and you’ll find a range of events and activities being advertised via the Resist page above.
WORDS & Video: Andrew Flood (Follow Andrew on Twitter