Activists in court to fight building eviction

ACTIVISTS occupying a vacant office building in Cork City are due in court this morning to fight their eviction.

Legal representatives of the owners of Stapleton House on Oliver Plunkett Street have in recent days served summonses on several individuals claiming they are trespassing in the building. They are expected to apply for an injunction at Cork Circuit Court this morning seeking the eviction of the group from the premises.

Liam Mullaney, who has been among the group occupying the building and who will represent the group in court, said they fully intend to contest the eviction process, and to challenge several claims made in the summonses about the building’s relationship to the National Assets Management Agency (Nama).

It is understood the building is linked to a commercial loan taken over by Nama, but it is understood the agency does not own the property.

But the occupying group insists the building is under Nama’s control.

The group, which included some of those who had been involved in the Occupy Cork protest at South Mall, moved into the unfinished building over Christmas.

They claimed the key to the building was left in a box underneath a Christmas tree near their encampment on Christmas Day.

They said it was left anonymously, with strict instructions that the building was a gift to the people of Cork.

They moved in, claiming squatter’s rights, and said they had liberated the building for the public and intended to open it as a community resource centre.

They held an open day in the building earlier this month, which included a céilí and traditional music.

The empty building was under development for retail and office use after permission was granted in 2008 to developer Joe O’Donovan’s company Padlake Ltd.

The six-storey glass-fronted building was designed to include 1,950sq m of retail space and 370sq m of office space, but it remains unfinished.