Below is a set of photographs from this morning’s activity at the Unlock NAMA building on Great Strand Street, Dublin 1. I’ll stick up another report later on the meetings, which will be take place as below:
12 noon: Conor McCabe (author of Sins of the Father) on NAMA and Property Speculation in Ireland
2.30pm: Andy Storey (lecturer in politics and international relations) and Michael Taft (research officer, UNITE) on the Anglo: Not Our Debt campaign
4pm: Unlock NAMA: What buildings does NAMA have and how can we identify and gain access to them?
In we go....
Busy busy!
Media team at work...
Before....
After...!
Arty shot...
The inhospitable third floor...
The rotten floor... *insert joke about rotten NAMA here
Some history of the building...
Meet the neighbours...
Almost meeting time!
Connor McCabe giving his talk
Two interested punters arrive and are refused entry by the recently arrived Gardai
A brief sitdown protest ensued
Taking the banner in.... Hopefully this is just the beginning!
The building has an interesting history, dating back to the mid 19th century. It was originally opened by J Edmundson, a member of the Religious Society of Friends, as a Quaker’s Institute. From the 1870’s, the Strand Street institute became one of the few educational centres in Dublin not administered by the Catholic church.
The building now belongs to… or lately belonged to Hugh O’Regan, an investor in the Morrison Hotel, just around the corner. The building has since fallen into disrepair, despite its valuation of €20 – €25 million. In todays markets, can anyone see it going for anywhere near that amount? Especially given the state of the place… There’s a hole in the roof that has been left untreated, leaving rainwater to soak through three stories… Given the city’s homeless epedemic and with community groups crying out for space, seeing the building like this is stomach turning.
We here at CHTM! have spoken out several times against the wanton destruction of this city’s beautiful architectural heritage in the name of “progress.” The next few years are going to be challenging in that the danger no longer lies in careless developers re-writing this city’s skyline, rather than in buildings themselves falling into such a state of dereliction, that should this “recession” (God I hate that word) ever lift, that all they are fit for is bulldozing.
Unlock NAMA is a campaign to access NAMA properties for social and community use and to hold NAMA to account. While NAMA is all about giving public money to private banks, we want to make public buildings available to the public.
NAMA’s bank bailout has been a complete failure: the banks have needed more hand outs and even nationalization yet they still are not lending… for more information, please check out: http://www.facebook.com/UnlockNAMA
Available direct from publisher with free postage. 
What would I do with it? What about a learning exchange site that welcomes the 25% of adults deprived of literacy by the state inequalities and an education system that reproduces those disparities?
I’ve made the story a feature on indymedia and linked to here for the photo’s. Fair play with the images
Inspirational well done to all concerned – while I’m at
it CHTM the blog rocks!!
First suggestion above makes good sense to me …
Kp
GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hopefully many empty (NAMA) buildings will follow………….
I’m sure there is more empty buildings then homeless people in Eire; draw your own conclusion out of that one………..
[…] then again NAMA has been criticised for poor addressing of properties in the past. There is a good collection of photographs here showing the occupation and condition of the […]
Love this and of course AGS come to the rescue
A few pics from outside
Duelling cameras…
[…] include the unofficial transformation of public and private spaces, as expressed by the recent Unlock NAMA event in Dublin. Others are perhaps more playful in their approach, such as is emphasised by […]
[…] For more on Unlock Nama, see here, and for more on the day itself, see here. […]
[…] Photos courtesy of Come Here to Me! […]
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