Dublin Opinion

Posted in Irish Labour History | 6 Comments

6 Responses to “DUBLIN HOUSING ACTION COMMITTEE, BULLETIN no.1 (c.1967)”

1. on 03 Jul 2012 at 8:35 am1Gerryboy

   DHAC had a blunt slogan ‘Houses before office blocks’. The campaign galvanised social and political activists, and attracted some support from an otherwise apathetic university student sector. Speakers like Sean O’Cionnaith and Proinsias de Rossa, and a Flemish architect-in-exile named Staf van Velthoven, were invited to address groups of students. The anti-Vietnam war campaign around 1967 caught the attention of students too.

   I had a small personal involvement in both campaigns. After reflecting on this for a short while I might post some snippets of memories from those days.

2. on 15 Jul 2012 at 4:50 pm2Jim Monaghan

   Don’t forget Denis Dennehy. I remember visiting him in Mountjoy Square. Awful poverty.
   Staf was witchhunted for a youthful involvement in a flemish group which got too close to the Germans.He was a long time member of Official Sinn Fein.

3. on 16 Jul 2012 at 2:46 am3Gerryboy

   Yes, Denis Dennehy was an activist (non-party if I remember) who went to jail for his sit-in activities. Hibernia magazine (remember that?) did a good profile about him around 1969-1970. He edited and circulated a duplicated newssheet called The Agitator. His wife backed him to the hilt. Both were evicted from a rented home I think, so they were agitating on the housing crisis from bitter experience.

   I’m still trying to get my thoughts together to write a short memoir about DHAC protests in the period 1966 onwards. Just give me a little more time.

4. on 21 Jul 2012 at 7:16 pm4D.R.O'Connor Lysaght,

   Dennis Denehy was one of the best worker militants this writer knew. At the time discussed, he was a member of the Irish Communist Organization, later the British and Irish Communist Organization (BICO), ultimately the nucleus of the Aubane Historical Society. Although he was a dedicated fan of Stalin and all his works, he was practically non-sectarian and a less difficult co-worker than many theoretically closer to the writer’s point of view.
   In early 1969, he was imprisoned for refusing to give an undertaking not to squat in an empty room, in Mountjoy Square. (This is open to be corrected; certainly, up to then, he, his wife, Mary, and two sons had lived in a small caravan at Inchicore.). He went on hunger strike, and, until dissuaded, on thirst strike. There was a mass picket in his support outside the Mansion House, where the foundation of the Dail was being commemorated. The organizers had difficulty keeping the demonstrators from invading the building and showed some reluctance to repeat such a mobilization. Fortunately for them, Denis was released shortly afterwards.
   He left BICO in 1974, after the UWC ’strike’ when that body raised the demand for a separate Ulster TUC; he regarded this as an unprincipled avoidance of the ‘hard graft’ (his words) needed for serious work in the unions. In bad health since his hunger strike, he died around 1981.

5. on 23 Jul 2012 at 2:10 am5Gerryboy

   Corrections accepted. Dennis Denehy and wife Mary were true activists who suffered before and on account of their activism. Their dedication transcended party group affiliations.

6. on 14 Mar 2013 at 10:31 pm6SiosAnBothar

   Dennis Dennehy was a relative of mine. I’m researching his part of my family history and so I’d really like to hear more of your recollections of Dennis, his family, and their struggle.

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