Dublin, (APP – UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 22nd Nov, 2024) Every week Martin Leahy, a musician recently evicted from his rental accommodation, stands outside the Irish parliament and sings an angry protest song, “Everyone Should Have a Home!”
Leahy’s plight is a fragment of intractable housing and homelessness crises that have dominated election campaigning as Ireland prepares to vote on November 29.
“I’m now a member of Ireland’s hidden homeless,” Leahy told AFP during a break from belting out his composition on loop for an hour, pausing only to chat to passers-by.
The 48-year-old guitarist had to leave his long-term rental accommodation in the southern city of Cork this month after his landlord sold the property.
Now staying with a friend, he is pessimistic about his future.
“There is a lack of availability and rents are too high, I’m priced out of the market,” said Leahy, who carries a placard reading “#HousingCrisis” along with his instrument.
Softly spoken but determined, Leahy has travelled from Cork to the parliament every Thursday — a protest pilgrimage he hopes is hitting home in the corridors of power.
“Irish people should not accept this as being a normal part of life here,” he said.
