Trinity students are among those to vacate an occupied property in Summerhill this morning. The occupation ended before 8am this morning, with an inspection of the house showing it had been vacated. It is unclear when the occupiers vacated the property. The occupation lasted for just over one week.
The deadline to vacate the property passed at 8am this morning. A man acting as an agent for owner PJ O’Donnell entered the property shortly after 9am, using power tools to forcefully open the door to 35 Summerhill Parade. He confirmed that “the properties we have inspected are not occupied”.
According to its Facebook page, the Summerhill occupation group will hold a direct action at Summerhill Parade at 12pm this afternoon. According to its event page, “Summerhill was the beginning, not the end. We will need all available people as we move into a new stage of the struggle”.
This comes a day after a High Court injunction was issued to vacate the premises. It was granted to PJ O’Donnell, with no opposition in the court. The injunction applies to houses located at 33-39 Summerhill Parade, however number 35 was the only property occupied.
The occupation was sparked by the eviction of a large number of tenants in May, who were evicted with 24 hours notice from the houses. Each property had housed up to 20 tenants before the eviction, with residents staying in shared bunk bed rooms. It is argued by O’Donnell that this was a result of fire safety concerns, which were made by a member of the Dublin City Council Fire Brigade.
A second occupation by the same group took place in the Custom House on Wednesday. Trinity students, among others, called for the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government Eoghan Murphy to meet their demands. These include the compulsory purchase of the Summerhill properties and all vacant land in the capital by Dublin City Council, while also introducing stricter rent caps.
The occupations come during the Festival of Direct Action, which has seen Take Back Trinity involvement across the capital. Students began the festival with an occupation of global real estate investment company Kennedy Wilson. Following this, the group have partaken in many protests, and have marched in the Trans Pride Parade to bring attention to the issue of housing.
