Activists to highlight housing crisis along route of Cork St Patrick's Day parade

Cork housing activists intend to have a presence at this year’s St Patrick’s Day parade, following a decision taken at a public meeting on Tuesday night.

The meeting, which called for emergency action on housing in Cork, agreed that campaigners should attend Friday’s parade, with activists planning to hold aloft placards protesting the plight of those facing homelessness.

The meeting of some 100 people in the Metropole Hotel, which was organised by Socialist Party TD Mick Barry, heard contributions from charity workers, housing campaigners, and from people living in precarious tenancies and from people who are without a home.

Latest official figures show that 11,754 people are currently living in emergency accommodation, with numbers consistently rising over the past several months, and the Government’s decision to end the temporary ban on evictions on 31 March 31 is expected to lead to a further increase.

A general discussion about a proposed public protest against the Government’s decision to lift the eviction ban heard that there might not be sufficient time to organise a rally for St Patrick’s weekend, and anything planned for the following weekend might clash with the upcoming anti-racism rally on March 25.

One contribution from the floor, from a man who said he is facing eviction once the ban is lifted, proposed disrupting the St Patrick’s Day parade.

“What about going for stopping the St Patrick’s Day parade proceeding down Patrick’s Street with people lying on the f***ing ground in sleeping bags, because they don’t want us on the street then, but they’re putting us on the street,” the man said.

The man said he hadn’t slept a night since he had learned he was to be evicted, and he said he looked at his six-year-old child feeling that he had failed, even thou he knew the failure was that of the State.

He said media interest in the lifting of the eviction ban was waning, and coverage was drifting from the front page and “heading toward the obituaries at the back”, and he predicted that there would be no addresses “attached to some of the lives that are lost”.

The man’s contribution was applauded from the floor, and Mick Barry TD responded that while there was an argument to be made for stopping the parade, he felt that there was also an argument against disrupting a family day out.

“We just have to gauge what would be the mood of the general public, the mass of people bringing their kids into the protest [on 25 March] if there was an attempt to stop the parade,” Mr Barry said.

“There are other things that could be done with the parade, we could get to a strategic point and hold up signs and so on, without necessarily attempting to block the parade.” Following discussion, it was agreed that housing activists, some carrying sleeping bags, would attend the parade and display placards.

Mr Barry told The Echo that there was no intention to disrupt the parade, and their protest would be entirely peaceful.

“One of the things agreed at the meeting tonight is that people facing eviction as a result of the Government’s decision to lift the eviction ban, people facing eviction into homelessness, and their supporters, should turn out on St Patrick’s Day to highlight the case for keeping the eviction ban in place,” he said.