A crowd of over 50 people gathered today to rally against the eviction of an occupied building on North Frederick St.
The group, which also ran the occupation of a property in Summerhill, has been occupying 34 North Frederick St for 12 days. The protestors, including members of Take Back Trinity, were evicted from Summerhill Parade on August 16th.
Yesterday, the protestors were issued with an injunction to leave the building. This came into effect today at 1.30pm.
People gathered this afternoon to hear speeches from various activists, who announced that they would refuse to vacate the property, claiming that the protest would now move from civil ground into criminal as they staged an illegal lock-in.
Speaking at the rally, Solidarity TD Paul Murphy said that that the actions of protesters today were “brave” and “courageous”.
Murphy claimed that this movement could be “electrifying” and drew comparisons between this occupation and the occupation of Apollo House in 2016. He stated that he hoped these demonstrations would eventually lead to a mass movement. In their chants, the protesters urged Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy to step down.
At one point, a rocket was launched on the street by an unknown bystander.
Members of Take Back Trinity have become increasingly involved in activism on the issue of housing, participating in occupations, rallies and marches.
Speaking to The University Times, the President of the Graduate Students’ Union (GSU) and one of the leaders of Take Back Trinity, Oisin Vince Coulter, said: “We think it’s an illegitimate injunction.”
“We’re making the political point that these properties shouldn’t be used for profit, they shouldn’t be turned into guest houses as the injunction said it should be, given that there’s like close on 50 hotels already being developed right now in the inner city while essentially no social housing of any meaningful amount is being built for years. These properties need to be compulsory purchased and turned into social housing immediately”, he said.
Coulter said: “There is possible ramifications. There’s always risks. I wouldn’t speculate on what exactly is going to happen because so far the guards have been very courteous and we haven’t had any real issues with them.” He said he envisaged the protest going on “indefinitely”.
“Will we be there in six hours? Will we be there in six weeks? We actually don’t know but we’re planning to be there indefinitely.”
