Eoin Ó Broin - Home: Why Public Housing is the Answer

Home

Eoin Broin is a TD for Dublin Mid West and Sinn Fins spokesperson on Housing, Planning and Local Government. He is author of Matxinada, Basque Nationalism and Radical Basque Youth Movements (2003) and Sinn Fin and the Politics of Left Republicanism (2009).

The World Turned Upside-Down

In 1649, to St. Georges Hill

A ragged band they called the Diggers came to show the peoples will

They defied the landlords, they defied the laws

They were the dispossessed reclaiming what was theirs.

We come in peace, they said, to dig and sow.

We come to work the lands in common and to make the waste ground grow

This earth divided, we will make whole

So it may be a common treasury for all.

The sin of property we do disdain

No man has any right to buy or sell the earth for private gain

By theft and murder they took the land

Now everywhere the walls spring up at their command.

They make the laws to chain us well

The clergy dazzle us with heaven or they damn us into hell

We will not worship the god they serve

The god of greed who feeds the rich while poor folk starve.

We work, we eat together, we need no swords

We will not bow to the masters or pay rent to the lords.

Still we are free though we are poor.

Ye Diggers all stand up for glory, stand up now.

From the men of property the orders came

They sent the hired men and troopers to wipe out the
Diggers claim

Tear down their cottages, destroy their corn.

They were dispersed but still the vision lingers on.

You poor take courage, you rich take care

This earth was made a common treasury for everyone to share

All things in common, all people one.

They came in peace the order came to cut them down.

Words and music Leon Rosselson, 1975

The lyrics are derived from a seventeenth-century pamphlet attributed to the English Digger leader Gerrard Winstanley.

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR HOME

In this hard-hitting and timely book Broin exposes the failures in politics and economics that plunged Ireland into a housing crisis. He also argues that change lies in the hands of a new generation of politicians and activists and the question they face is this: are we to see homes as places to generate rent and interest from, or as places to live?

Paul Mason, journalist and author of PostCapitalism: A Guide to our Future

A wide ranging and thorough analysis of where we have gone wrong in housing in Ireland, followed by innovative ideas for putting things right.

Michelle Norris, Head of School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice, University College, Dublin

Broin argues that the Irish housing system is dysfunctional because of successive governments over reliance on the private market to meet housing demand. He argues for a new form of State involvement in housing public housing as the only way of ensuring that everyone will have an opportunity to live in a good quality affordable home. This book is accessible to anyone who is interested in solutions to the current housing crisis.

Simon Brooke, adjunct assistant professor at Trinity College, Dublin

Democratic Programme
Adopted by Dil ireann 21.1.1919

We declare in the words of the Irish Republican Proclamation the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland, and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies to be indefeasible, and in the language of our first President, Pdraig Mac Phiarais, we declare that the Nations sovereignty extends not only to all men and women of the Nation, but to all its material possessions, the Nations soil and all its resources, all the wealth and all the wealth-producing processes within the Nation, and with him we reaffirm that all right to private property must be subordinated to the public right and welfare.

We declare that we desire our country to be ruled in accordance with the principles of Liberty, Equality, and Justice for all, which alone can secure permanence of Government in the willing adhesion of the people.

We affirm the duty of every man and woman to give allegiance and service to the Commonwealth, and declare it is the duty of the Nation to assure that every citizen shall have opportunity to spend his or her strength and faculties in the service of the people. In return for willing service, we, in the name of the Republic, declare the right of every citizen to an adequate share of the produce of the Nations labour.

It shall be the first duty of the Government of the Republic to make provision for the physical, mental and spiritual well-being of the children, to secure that no child shall suffer hunger or cold from lack of food, clothing, or shelter, but that all shall be provided with the means and facilities requisite for their proper education and training as Citizens of a Free and Gaelic Ireland.

The Irish Republic fully realises the necessity of abolishing the present odious, degrading and foreign Poor Law System, substituting therefor a sympathetic native scheme for the care of the Nations aged and infirm, who shall not be regarded as a burden, but rather entitled to the Nations gratitude and consideration. Likewise it shall be the duty of the Republic to take such measures as will safeguard the health of the people and ensure the physical as well as the moral well-being of the Nation.

It shall be our duty to promote the development of the Nations resources, to increase the productivity of its soil, to exploit its mineral deposits, peat bogs, and fisheries, its waterways and harbours, in the interests and for the benefit of the Irish people.

It shall be the duty of the Republic to adopt all measures necessary for the recreation and invigoration of our Industries, and to ensure their being developed on the most beneficial and progressive co-operative and industrial lines. With the adoption of an extensive Irish Consular Service, trade with foreign Nations shall be revived on terms of mutual advantage and goodwill, and while undertaking the organisation of the Nations trade, import and export, it shall be the duty of the Republic to prevent the shipment from Ireland of food and other necessaries until the wants of the Irish people are fully satisfied and the future provided for.

It shall also devolve upon the National Government to seek co-operation of the Governments of other countries in determining a standard of Social and Industrial Legislation with a view to a general and lasting improvement in the conditions under which the working classes live and labour.

First published in 2019 by

Merrion Press

An imprint of Irish Academic Press

10 Georges Street

Newbridge

Co. Kildare

Ireland

www.merrionpress.ie

Eoin Broin, 2019

9781785372650 (Paper)

9781785372667 (Kindle)

9781785372674 (Epub)

9781785372681 (PDF)

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

An entry can be found on request

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

An entry can be found on request

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved alone, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

Typeset in Classical Garamond BT 11/15 pt

Cover front and back: Architect: 24H-architecture, Rotterdam; Boris Zeisser and Maartje Lammers.
Copyright images: Boris Zeisser.

Back-cover photo of the author by Mark Nixon,