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Protesters take over NAMA-owned building and open it to the public

Members of Unlock NAMA inside the Great Strand Street building today
Members of Unlock NAMA inside the Great Strand Street building today
Image: @bitthompt and @soundmigration

ANTI-NAMA PROTESTERS have taken over a property believed to be owned by the bad bank and have opened it up to the public for today.

Members of Unlock NAMA, a campaign to use NAMA buildings for social and community purposes, are currently in a building at 66-67 Great Strand Street in Dublin 1.

The group says that the building was formerly owned by a property developer and is now under NAMA ownership.

“This is about lifting the veil of secrecy around NAMA and making the buildings available to the public,” Mick O’Broin, a member of the group told TheJournal.ie today.

“Some of the buildings owned by NAMA have no commercial use and probably will never be sold, so its’s a no-brainer to give them a social and community use,” he said.

The group is holding a number of talks and discussions in the building until 6pm this evening examining the “unmitigated failure” of NAMA and alternative approaches.

The occupation of the building is the first step in a campaign by the group to highlight NAMA’s assets, which are not fully publicly known, to draw attention to the debt the agency has created and to work to develop alternatives.

“While NAMA is trying to make public funds available to bail out private banks, Unlock NAMA is going to help make public buildings available to the public,” said Gillian Barden of the group, adding:

We’re going to be the watchdog NAMA doesn’t want

Protesters take over NAMA-owned building and open it to the public
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All photographs by @bitthompt and @soundmigration

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Comments (42 Comments)

  • Robert Mayberry 28/01/12 #
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    Good job

    Reply
  • Conor Hickey 28/01/12 #
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    A roof over the heads of the homeless tonight.

    Reply
  • Delta Delta 28/01/12 #
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    Damn hippies.

    Reply
  • Report this comment

    I think this is actually a great idea, and a functional form of protest. Well done to them.

    Reply
  • Paul O'Keeffe 28/01/12 #
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    Good work, keep it up!

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  • Damien Mc Elroy 28/01/12 #
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    About time the revolution started next we need to open Leinster house

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  • Robert Mulraney 28/01/12 #
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    Fantastic, the possibilities are endless when people take control

    Reply
  • B7584 28/01/12 #
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    Plenty of nightclub opportunities with these unused abandoned buildings.
    Anyone been to Berlin?

    Reply
  • Ronán Donnelly 28/01/12 #
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    Good idea. Alot better then sitting on a bunch of wooden pallets on Dame street.

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    • Eoghan McMahon 28/01/12 #
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      This wouldve never happened had Occupy not started, or continued once the first wave began to finish. Occupying as a tactic is a means of gathering people together, creating awareness, forming networks and relationships, as well as being a symbolic action of opposition to a particular policy/decision. It helped form a critical mass which gave people a resource to use, and gave people courage to do these kinds of actions by pushing the boudaries of public protest in Ireland.

  • David 28/01/12 #
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    This is great. I think i’m gonna take control of the houses next to me that are lying idle. Maybe some nice mercedes if i see one just parked somewhere too.

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  • michael egan 28/01/12 #
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    Just like the hippies of the sixties this phoney protest is just a bunch of bored rich spoilt assh***es .The real homeless live cold wet miserable loveless lives and die prematurely in some filthy alleyway.Meanwhile these “protesters” parents are probably the very people you see pouring jeyes fluid in few doorsteps these poor unfortunates find shelter.

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    • William Odee 28/01/12 #
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      Yes rich kids are often found donned in jeans, wollen jumpers, hats and owning 5 year old mac laptops. Also good point re: the REAL homeless, as opposed to the imaginary homeless, riding around on the backs of giraffes and slaying space lizards. And sure yeah, while we’re at it let’s just assume they’re all the children of property developers, bankers, financial regulators and politicians, I mean you’re first two points were BANG on the money how could you conceivably be wrong about that?

      And that bald hippie midget we have for a president reckons there’s an intellectual crisis in this country, such poppycock! Clearly he’s never read through the comments on this website. Egad! One can toast marshmallows off the sheer radiant genius of the mini masterpieces of concise and well argued political prose one reads here! Bravo sir, bravo.

    • Emsy wemsy 28/01/12 #
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      William,so well put! You legend :)

  • Bruce 28/01/12 #
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    Could they not have occupied a better place? Hippies, no class!

    Reply
  • foggy_lad 28/01/12 #
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    Friggin posh wasters! These wankers need to be stopped now by force! They have broken enough laws and are now after breaking and entering and continue to trespass and damage property belonging to the state! ENOUGH ALREADY! Smash this protest as it is totally against the honest decent hard working people who are now struggling with their finances! Send in the horses and Gardai with batons drawn and occupy these morons with a few belts of reality!

    Reply
    • Robert Mayberry 28/01/12 #
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      What are you on? NAMA is a scam for the rich to hold on to their ill gotten gains through deceit and corruption. Theses buildings should be used for good not wasting away,and you sir are a fascist

    • Robert Mulraney 28/01/12 #
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      i wouldn’t call him a fascist, at least fascists have an ideology no matter how repulsive it may be. he’s simply a moron, ranting and raving about something he knows nothing about. There’s a lot of assumptions that these people are posh/middle class/hippies. I don’t see any evidence for any of this. If you don’t like this action that was done then don’t get so annoyed about, it doesn’t affect you in anyway. Otherwise if they remain true to what they claim they’re gonna do then doesn’t a social space social groups seem like a good idea? I read the evuivalent group in cork is giving space to a suicide prevention group. I suppose you’d still like to see the cops beating the shit out of them? If you’ve no positive contribution to make to society fine, just don’t step in the way of other who do!

  • Emsy wemsy 28/01/12 #
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    Nice one,sick of seeing so many empty buildings wasting away. Makes the place look terrible,boarded up windows and rotting buildings

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  • Sharon Barry 28/01/12 #
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    Im delighted that protesters are occupying Nama Buildings this country is full of people that like to complain about the state of the country but will still do noting only knock people that do anything .

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  • Maeve McCarthy 28/01/12 #
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    This building has, by all accounts been badly neglected, with a hole in the roof which has led to damage on three floors. Thanks to these people for drawing attention to that. It just one example of a many neglected state owned buildings, not all in NAMA:: some have been ransacked and vandalized with roof lead stolen, copper pipes ripped out and left to the elements.

    For those who criticise the occupiers, bear in mind that we all own these buildings and they are highlighting this neglect. They are not trespassing with criminal intent and I for one want someone to take responsibility for it’s care, so it will keep its value and be sold at a good price or used temporarily so as to keep it maintained and secure.

    Some people may not like their methods, but nothing else has worked in the past three years and meanwhile rot and neglect continues all over the country – from ghost states to historic buildings. The government fiddles while Ireland burns.

    Reply
  • Donal O'Sullivan 28/01/12 #
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    This is what the Occupy Dame Street crowd should of done. Good idea.

    Reply
  • Neil Young 28/01/12 #
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    I always understood that NAMA owned the loans but not the properties which were still owned by the developers. So how’s this going to affect NAMA? Or am I wrong?

    Reply
  • Don Booker 28/01/12 #
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    Isn’t that government property? Have we no respect here on the island anymore for law and order across the divide?
    NAMA’s doing it’s best. Now we’ll have to pay people either to remove them by force or through the court system. Then house them when they are in the Joy. They’re full enough already with rogue politicians and bankers from another former era.

    One for all and all for one.
    Leave private and public property alone. People should just take up some of those jobs out there. I think people are just bored with life.

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  • Gerard Mooney 28/01/12 #
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    Hats off :) bout time.

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  • Tadhg Luby 28/01/12 #
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    NAMA own over 10,000 apartments, and god only knows how many houses/building, 5000 homeless people in Ireland, do the math!

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  • Report this comment

    @Don aaaaahhhhhhhhhh noooooooo These building are not government owned, they are owned by the taxpayers of Ireland and the government are our administrators not our masters as some would like to think. We live in a democracy not a dictatorship, though some days I have problems discerning exactly who is administrating this dictatorship (OOOPs frauidan slip there) democracy.

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  • Report this comment

    Well done to all involved.

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  • Gerry Hoey 29/01/12 #
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    Well done. Ignore the knockers. Love this new approach. If it is not being used by NAMA, yes, take them over!!!

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