A PEOPLE BEFORE Profit TD has said a rally against the eviction of tenants from Dublin’s Tathony House shows that “you can fight and you can resist”.
A rally is currently taking place outside Tathony House in Bow Bridge, Kilmainham, to coincide the date on which tenants had been ordered to move out by.
The landlord has decided to sell the property and evict 34 households in the process.
Some have moved out since have had to relocate to places like Meath and Dundalk as they were unable to find a home in Dublin.
The remaining residents were ordered to move out by today but have said they will remain in place until their case with the Residential Tenancies Board has concluded.
Speaking at a rally today outside Tathony House, PBP TD Bríd Smith said: “The lesson from today is that you can fight, you can resist, you don’t have to give in to the demands of the landlords when your eviction notice is issued, you can resist.”
Smith added that people in Ireland don’t have “proper tenants’ rights”.
She told the rally: “In the meantime, people like the tenants of Tathony House are being faced with absolute desperation and either two choices; one, resist, fight, and stay where you are or give in and go into homelessness.
“I think the first choice is far better, far healthier, far more positive, and most likely to give you results.
“There’s nothing like fighting back and getting organised, but it does mean getting organised and you see the sort of structures of that here today.”
Smith added that the “bigger fight is to get rid of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael”.
Madeleine Johansson, a People Before Profit councillor and Tathony tenant of 14 years, previously told The Journal there was “no indication” that the landlord wanted to sell before the notice was served in October.
Speaking at today’s rally, Johansson said the situation has been “very frustrating, difficult, and stressful”.
TATHONY HOUSE: WE WILL NOT BE PUT OUT ON THE STREETS
— People Before Profit (@pb4p) May 31, 2023
10 remaining households have been ordered to leave by June 2nd .
But they're refusing to go - as is their right!
📣 Rally to support them
⏰ 12pm
📍 outside Tathony House in Bow Bridge, Kilmainham
📅Friday pic.twitter.com/AqscRoAMVK
She added: “There’s a huge amount of people with eviction notices out there, which obviously puts a lot of pressure on the rental market, which means that there’s more or less nowhere for people to go, that is the reality.”
Johansson and her partner James O’Toole have spearheaded the tenants’ campaign.
Addressing today’s rally, O’Toole said he too is “tired and stressed” but added that he is “determined to stick with this”.
Fabiola Escalera, who is a native of Mexico, is also a tenant of Tathony House.
She told The Journal: “It is really stressful because you have a lot of things going, it’s not your country and you don’t have your family here, so you are worrying all the time if you’re going to stay here or not.
“You’re seeing the prices in other houses, you have to pay €700 by sharing a room with two or three other people, so it’s really, really stressful for me.”
She said she may return home should she not be allowed to stay in Tathony House and expressed concern about her ability to afford rent elsewhere.
-With additional reporting from Diarmuid Pepper
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