Once a month since September 2022, artist Lian Bell has done a full circuit of the North and South Circular Roads, observing these 14km through the seasons.
At recent meetings in City Hall, councillors discussed the growth in student housing in the Liberties, and Gardaí gave updates on some of what they’ve been doing in the inner city.
The squeeze in the private-rental sector means that those who run the programme for rough-sleepers must rely on social housing. Which isn’t always easy.
“When you have regulation of the entertainment industry from 1935 it’s definitely outdated,” says Constantin Gurdgiev. “The social conditions which might have warranted the regulation no longer exist,” he says.
Social-housing tenants in Dublin should be involved in running the estates and complexes they live in, says independent Councillor Mannix Flynn. “This is about equality, empowerment and full participation.”
Early next year, Shane Reilly and Killian Stokes plan to launch an app to let customers in Ireland trace their coffee right back to the farmer who produced it, through the roasters, washers and transport workers, to their cups.
Many of the 15 works in “In Public, In Particular” touch on issues of gentrification and the erosion of working-class ways of life. The exhibition is on this Thursday and Friday.
Some say they’d gladly move into a hostel if they could get a decent one, where couples could stay together, where recovering addicts don’t have to bunk with users, where they wouldn’t just get kicked out each day and have to start all over again.
