A child asked “What’s a community centre?” and that one question tells you a lot about what’s been taken from working-class communities in Dublin. We’re joined by Lisa, Gail and Sandra from Oliver Bond Flats, and they bring us from the warm, hilarious memories of growing up in a place where everyone knew everyone, to the hard truth of what it’s like living there now.
We talk about overcrowding, leaving school early because there’s no space to study, and how mental health was often treated as something you just powered through. We also name the heroin years and the way recovery supports and local jobs once helped the community breathe again, then ask what happens when youth services lose the fun, the trips and the safe places that keep teenagers steady.
Then we get into the housing conditions people are facing today: damp and black mould that keeps coming back, leaks that need buckets, rats drawn to bins left outside, and the stress of trying to keep a home decent when the building itself is failing. We unpack the Oliver Bond regeneration plan, why residents fought for a real community centre, and how a last-minute funding decision threatens to make the housing crisis in Ireland even worse on the ground. If you care about Dublin social housing, tenants’ rights, and what real community investment looks like, this conversation will stay with you.
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