The human costs of the recession

An inquest finding that hypothermia caused the death of 30-year-old mother-of-two Rachel Peavoy in her council flat is a stark reminder of how society’s most vulnerable are suffering as the economic crisis worsens, writes Scott Millar

THE Ballymun housing scheme on Dublin’s northern fringe has, since its completion in the late 1960s, been associated with social and economic depravation. Although all but one of its seven multi-storey towers, named after the signatories of the 1916 proclamation, are now demolished, the much-vaunted regeneration of the area is yet to be finished, several years after its supposed completion date.

The flat in which Rachel Peavoy died on the night of January 11, 2010, is contained in one of the scheme’s smaller housing blocks.