In the north inner-city, tenants of 15 years evicted so council can buy their home
Dublin City Council is buying 40 homes in the Northbank apartments. It is not clear how many tenants have been evicted for the deal to proceed.
A housing charity had planning permission to build 11 apartments there, but that project fizzled out in 2024. Why?
The site "is in the direct eye line of the [Dublin City Council] chief executive’s office”, says Green Party Councillor Janet Horner.
Its story reads like a cheap pastiche of Edgar Allan Poe, a century-long streak of tragedy and misfortune, ending in a fire in 2007.
“I think it's so sad that a beautiful little house was destroyed,” says Rosita Sweetman. “It seems we are incredibly bad at managing our housing stock.”
The Georgian building was once a meeting place for revolutionary leaders and the Gaelic League, and has been in council ownership, at least on paper, since 1998.
Dublin City Council has not yet said what it's going to do with the building.
Even as the government casts around for new land to zone for homes, it is unclear when this plot will be built out.
Years back, the Office of Public Works said it would figure out what to do with the homes on Garda Terrace, but it still hasn’t yet said what.
At the end of last year, the warehouse on the banks of the Royal Canal was added to the derelict sites register.
The council’s current target is to knock and build new social homes on the site in the heart of the south-inner city by early 2028.
“It’s usually disappointing for essentially a state organisation to be sitting on derelict properties. It’s a very bad look.”
Councillors blocked the site’s sale to a developer in 2018, and the council said recently it’s not suitable for use as a park. So what will become of it?