Priory Hall scandal: A century on, the same old story

For Priory Hall owners, today’s developers are no better than the landlords of 100 years ago, says Jonathan deBurca Butler

THE by now requisite summer school season kicks off tomorrow with the opening of The Countess Markievicz Summer School in Liberty Hall, Dublin. Founded in 2011 by students from the School of Social Justice in University College Dublin, the annual event tackles issues affecting women in public and political life in Ireland. The day-long programme will this year focus on Women and Poverty and Living Conditions from 1913, the time of Dublin’s famous lockout, to 2013. Among the speakers is Graham Usher, a former resident of the now-infamous Priory Hall in north Dublin.

“One of the founders of the school, Lucy Keaveney, told me they were doing a section on standards in accommodation in Ireland in the last 100 years,” explains Usher. “She said she couldn’t really do it without bringing in Priory Hall.”