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Sir, – At the start of a new year, I have found it a hugely inspiring thing and a matter of great pride to be able to say, when asked by my children, that those occupying Dublin’s Apollo House are making a stand for our homeless fellow citizens.
We are told by some in power that the building is unsuitable for this purpose. In some ways I don’t doubt that this is so. How could it be otherwise? But I also feel sure that Apollo House offers amenities that a cold, wet doorway cannot offer, namely a roof, four walls, a meal, a place to wash, a bed, safety, and a modicum of the simple human dignity that a self-avowed republic should afford its people.
Some of the leaders of the occupation are well-known celebrities, runs the latest criticism. On that basis, Live Aid, which saved hundreds of thousands of lives, and the international anti-apartheid movement, which helped defeat that wicked and iniquitous injustice, were also bad ideas.
In the screwed-up logic of the voices of power in our Lilliput, Glen Hansard is now the enemy. The empty buildings we all own should be left empty and bat-infested, until the vulture funds before whom we are invited to tip the forelock get around to flipping them for a profit. By this method, we can continue to be a nice little obedient slum with a casino attached. Swift and Myles na gCopaleen, where are you now?
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What can artists possibly know about the sufferings of the dispossessed? Fine, if that’s your view. The fact that you play guitar is to debar you from a say in how your country is run? Who could possibly argue with such a reasoned position? A degree in economics is, of course, the first requisite of Irish citizenship now, and the possession of padded kneecaps, for a more gentle genuflection.
But please don’t lecture the rest of us on the importance of the 1916 Rising, an illegal activity which featured quite a number of poets, writers and artists in significant positions of leadership and led to some uncomfortable outcomes.
It wasn’t very popular with a lot of the Irish media, face-saving politicians and other authorities at the time, of course. But we’ve all just had to endure a year of official commemoration, which many of us thought meant something other than noise, waffle, platitude and posturing.
I guess those awkward lines about cherishing the children of the nation equally and the people of Ireland being entitled to the ownership of Ireland are one thing when the subject of a photogenic parade in O’Connell Street, at Easter 2016, and another when it cuts to the chase.
Apollo House matters. I thank the Home Sweet Home movement for its implied reminder that we don’t always have to be cowed little subservient muppets who bend the knee to power. – Yours, etc,
JOSEPH O’CONNOR,
McCourt Professor
of Creative Writing,
University of Limerick.