Mother’s ladder protest fails to prevent eviction
However 48-year-old Ann Moore’s protest was in vain as the council eviction was eventually completed.
After returning from a night shift in a local nursing home at 8am, Ms Moore started her protest.
By lunchtime around 25 gardaí had closed off the Gleanntan cul-de-sac in Loughlinstown, South County Dublin, and a crowd of more than 50locals had gathered to support the Moore family’s protest.
But shortly before 3pm an exhausted Ms Moore came down the ladder to applause and was treated in a waiting ambulance.
The Dun Laoghaire- Rathdown County bailiffs, backed by gardaí, then moved in to complete the family’s eviction from their home of 14 years. Before departing, the windows were boarded with metal and the door securely locked.
Council officials said the family had run up arrears of €13,000, although Ms Moore’s husband Christopher said they were in the process of paying off these arrears, much of which had accumulated since he lost his construction industry job over a year ago. He said: “We are paying back the arrears at €150 a week and two lump sums of €500; after the offer was made they turned around and said they wanted a substantial amount but didn’t say what amount.”
Local People Before Profit Councillor Hugh Lewis expressed anger at the fact that an ordinary family had been “turfed on to the road”.
“Looking at this scene with gardaí and bailiffs forcing a family out brings to mind the injustices from the time of the Land League,” he said.
“You couldn’t make up what is going on in modern Ireland, with developers who will never pay the money bailed out but an ordinary family forced out of their home when they are trying to pay what they owe.”
The council said they were acting on a warrant for repossession issued in December 2008.
A protest highlighting the Moore family’s plight will be held outside Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County offices on Monday lunchtime.
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