Events

Housing Experts Panel — Book Forum

Join Rob Kitchin in conversation with a panel of housing experts — Mike Allen, Mick Byrne, Danielle Hynes, Ronan Lyons, Lidia Manzo, and Lorcan Sirr — to discuss their recent books and their diagnosis of the housing emergency.

The panel brings together a wealth of contemporary and historical knowledge about housing in Ireland. Ronan Lyons (TCD, Daft Reports) and Lorcan Sirr (TUD) are regular media commentators. Mick Byrne (UCD) pens The Week in Housing Substack. Mike Allen (Focus Ireland) has active practitioner knowledge of addressing homelessness. Lidia Manzo (Universitas Mercatorum) has undertaken extensive participatory research on social housing in Dublin 8, and Danielle Hynes (University of Sydney) is an activist researcher on tenants’ rights.

The books the panel will discuss:

• Beyond Generation Rent: Political Economy, Inequality, and the Private Rental Sector — Michael Byrne (Polity Books, 2026)
• The Data Politics of Housing, Property and Planning — edited by Danielle Hynes, Rob Kitchin and Samuel Mutter (Policy Press, 2026)
• Brittle: How the Housing Crisis is Breaking Ireland – and How to Fix It — Ronan Lyons (Atlantic Books, 2026)
• Understanding Homelessness in Ireland Since Independence: Decades in the Making — Eoin O’Sullivan, Mike Allen and Sarah Sheridan (Policy Press, 2026)
• Housing a Nation: Irish Land, Power and Politics in Six Generations — Lorcan Sirr (Hachette, 2026)
• Care, Health and Housing — edited by Lidia Manzo (Policy Press, 2026)

Panel Booking

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Symposium: Critically Reflecting on the Evidence Base for Housing and Planning

How do we come to understand the housing crisis in Ireland? How do policymakers and businesses use evidence to make housing-related plans and decisions? How comprehensive is our housing and planning evidence base?

Join the researchers for the Fictions, Frictions & Evictions exhibition and guest experts for a series of roundtables discussing how housing and planning evidence is produced, shared and used, and the present limits to our knowledge and its implications.

As well as university researchers, the symposium includes speakers from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, the Housing Agency, Land Development Agency, Office of the Planning Regulator, Central Statistics Office, Irish Planning Institute and Jacobs Consultants.

Designed to include the voices of the audience, come and participate in discussions about the present state of play in evidence-based housing and planning in Ireland.

Symposium Booking

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Programme

• 10:00–10:30 — Welcome + Opening
  Prof. Rob Kitchin, Maynooth University
• 10:30–11:30 — Housing, Planning and Open Data
  Chair: Sam Mutter
  Guests: Justin Gleeson (MU), Cormac Halpin (CSO), Maedhbh Nic Lochlainn (UCC)
• 11:30–12:30 — Data Tools for Housing and Planning
  Chair: Juliette Davret
  Guests: Cillian Lehmann (LDA), Philip Crowe (UCD), Oliver Dawkins (MU)
• 12:30–13:30 — Lunch
• 13:30–14:30 — ‘Good Enough’ Property Data?
  Chair: Carla Kayanan
  Guests: Kathleen Stokes (DCU), Orla Hegarty (UCD), Rob Kitchin (MU)
• 14:30–15:30 — To What Extent Is Planning Sufficiently Evidence-Based?
  Chair: Leah Aaron
  Guests: Caren Gallagher & Burcin Yazgi Walsh (OPR), Deirdre Scully (IPI), Carla Kayanan (MU)
• 15:30–16:00 — Coffee
• 16:00–17:00 — Blindspots in Our Understanding of Housing and Planning
  Chair: Danielle Hynes
  Guests: Ali Harvey (Jacobs), Roslyn Molloy (Housing Agency), Justin Anderson (Department of Housing)

Exhibition and Program Launch

Join us for the opening of the Fictions, Frictions & Evictions exhibition, along with our esteemed speakers Conor McCabe (researcher and historian), Daithí Downey (DCC), Lois Kapila (Dublin Inquirer) and Niamh Moore-Cherry (UCD), as we launch our programme with a discussion of the housing emergency and the role of research and art in documenting and prompting critical reflection on what is happening, as well as the role of data and evidence in understanding housing and planning.

12:00–13:00 — In Conversation with @the_liberties_sos

Abaigeal Meek & Jack Caffrey

Join Fictions, Frictions & Evictions curator Brendan Fox for a conversation with artists and activists Abaigeal Meek and Jack Caffrey about their photographic and film archive project, @the_liberties_sos.

@the_liberties_sos is an online artist-led photographic and film archive examining corporate-led gentrification, displacement and community resistance in Dublin’s Liberties.

Through long-term documentary practice, Meek and Caffrey explore how photography and film can act as both cultural record and civic intervention, examining the relationship between place, memory, housing and spatial justice while building a public archive of a community undergoing profound change.

Their work has led to collaborations, public talks and screenings with organisations including the Community Action Tenants Union and The School of Thought, founded by artist Augustine O’Donoghue and historian and educator Dr Conor McCabe. Their films were presented as part of Culture Night 2023, curated by Contemporary Quarters.

Writing in The Irish Times, Una Mullally described @the_liberties_sos as “one of 2025’s top activists to watch”. Meek also contributed to Mullally’s podcast Saving the City, which explored gentrification in Dublin.

Their practice continues to contribute to public conversations on housing, heritage and spatial justice in Ireland.

@the_liberties_sos Booking

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13:00–14:00 — Artists & Researchers Public Lunch

Join the Data Stories artists and researchers for an informal lunch at the Fictions, Frictions & Evictions exhibition.

14:00–15:00 — Between Art and Action: Another Brick in the Wall

Fictions, Frictions & Evictions exhibiting artists and activists discuss their creative practice and the housing emergency.

Join Data Stories artists and activists as they discuss how exploring data through creative practice can challenge injustice, shape public debate and connect communities — but also the fact that it can often feel like you are banging your head against a brick wall.

With Augustine O’Donoghue, Joan Somers Donnelly, Conor Burke, Abaigeal Meek and Jack Caffrey, in conversation with Fictions, Frictions & Evictions curator Brendan Fox.

Between Art and Action Booking

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15:00–16:00 — Between Data and Narrative

With Ella Harris & Hannah Mumby, Sean Borodale, Mel Galley and Clara McSweeney.

Join Fictions, Frictions & Evictions writer, researchers, and exhibitors Ella Harris & Hannah Mumby, Sean Borodale, Mel Galley, and Clara McSweeney for a conversation about their creative process and how housing data becomes lived experience, story, and public debate.

Between Data and Narrative Booking

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16:00–17:30 — Nervous System

Joan Somers Donnelly

A lecture performance on knowledge, power and planning in Ireland.

What do we talk about when we talk about evidence?

And when it comes to interpreting and making decisions based on that evidence, whose knowledge and experience is classed as expertise and whose as anecdote?

Part lecture, part performance, this live event will delve into some of the insights from two Data Stories case studies artist Joan Somers Donnelly worked on that looked at data practices relating to housing and planning policy, involving stakeholders from local and central government as well as from the private and civil society sectors.

Featuring material from case study interviews and workshops, extracts from an arts-based ethnography of seven planners working in local authorities in different parts of the country, and a Reeling in the Years-style segment on Irish local government, Nervous System reflects on how knowledge is understood within planning and policy making in Ireland, and on the bizarre experience of being an artist-interloper in both the civil service and academia.

Nervous System Booking

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10:30–11:30 — Holdings Workshop

Mel Galley and Clara McSweeney

Join us for a one-hour participatory workshop that takes a closer look at the places we pass through every day. This workshop is inspired by the research and thinking behind Holdings, which is exhibited as part of Fictions, Frictions & Evictions.

Through walking, writing, observing and recording, we will engage with the streets surrounding The Digital Hub, using a handmade zine to document what we notice.

At the end of the workshop, participants will have the opportunity to contribute one of their reflections to the Fictions, Frictions & Evictions exhibition library.

No prior knowledge or experience is needed; the workshop is an invitation to slow down, notice and hone in on the places we interact with every day.

Workshop Booking

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12:30–13:30 — Lunch at the Exhibition

Join us for Lunch at the Fictions, Frictions & Evictions exhibition ahead of our talks.

13:30–14:30 — No Space for Community

In Conversation with Anne Devlin Community Centre

Join award-winning author and activist Naoise Dolan for a conversation with Eoghan Lynch and Seán Doyle, housing activists from the Revolutionary Housing League (RHL), who occupied the long-vacant Ardee House pub in The Liberties, Dublin, and turned it into the Anne Devlin Community Centre.

No Space for Community Booking

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14:30–15:45 — Data, Activism and the Housing Emergency: Do We Have a Crisis of Evidence?

Dr Samuel Mutter in conversation with Tommy Gavin (CATU), Danielle Hynes, Lois Kapila (Dublin Inquirer).

Join Fictions, Frictions & Evictions researcher Dr Samuel Mutter in conversation with activist & researcher Tommy Gavin (CATU), social researcher Danielle Hynes and journalist Lois Kapila (Dublin Inquirer) for a discussion on the pitfalls of housing data and the role of activism in the current housing emergency.

Crisis of Evidence Booking

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15:45–16:30 — Focus Ireland: Launch Online Archive of Historic Homeless Strategy Documents

Speakers: Mike Allen and Eoin O’Sullivan (Focus Ireland)

Why do we not look to policies from the past when designing and delivering new plans?

Since 2000, the Irish Government has published a series of 6 strategies to tackle homelessness. The successes, failure, lessons, and implementation plans from these have been evaluated, critiqued, and monitored in numerous reports. However, due to the Government policy of not archiving key documents, all this innovation and learning has become largely inaccessible to those currently working to reduce and end homelessness.

In our new ‘Homeless Policy Archive Hub’, Focus Ireland aims to make key documents from each of the strategic phases available for researchers and the policymakers of today. Our hope is that by making these policies easily available, those advocating and working to end homelessness can explore what policies have been implemented before, how they were implemented and how we can build on the work of previous strategies.

16:30–18:30 — Fictions Frictions & Evictions Trad Session in Aid of Focus Ireland and CATU Ireland

Join us on Sunday, the 18th of October, at 4.30 pm at the Fictions Frictions & Evictions exhibition for a traditional Irish music session in aid of Focus Ireland and CATU (Community Action Tenants Union). This Traditional Irish Music session will be a lively event and will take place at the centre of our Public Access Library alongside the CATU Archive of Housing Justice and exhibited works.

Here’s the Focus Ireland donation link. Alternatively, you can donate to CATU via the QR code below.

In Defence of Housing — Saints & Scholars & CATU

Born out of a collaboration between CATU and the wonderful Saints & Scholars, this event is an addition to the newly introduced CATU reading group session on housing. At this session, we will discuss some concepts from the book, In Defence of Housing, which is a manifesto against the commodification of housing, combined with other material to prompt discussions on issues of housing struggle, private investment, residential alienation, class, and resistance. This drop-in session is intended for anyone looking to engage with housing justice, and that includes non-CATU members.

This event will take place at the Public Access Library at the centre of the Fictions, Frictions & Evictions Exhibition. All welcome!

Con: temporary Quarters — A Cultural Tour of Hotels in The Liberties

Come with us on a journey through Dublin’s most creative neighbourhood, The Liberties. Let’s explore the past, present and, most importantly, the future of this yet still “up and coming” area.

We gather as a procession marking the trail of cultural death within the lovely aul’ Liberties. Ranked 15th, then 23rd coolest neighbourhood in the world by non-residents, come along and meet some dwellers who can tell you from the horse’s mouth just what it is like to survive within this aspirational development area.

Focusing on Dublin 8’s new “blandmarks”, we will guide you through the vibrant locations we have sacrificed to the hotel gods for a new destination in the heart of Dublin that finds the balance between luxury, comfort and convenience…

Walking a casual loop through The Liberties, we will highlight the creativity that still survives through entertainment, art and more along the way.

Con: temporary Quarters (Aoife Ward and Eve Woods) is a satirical collaborative practice exploring housing, gentrification and collective space through performance, installation and research-based public engagement.

Their work pushes back against the overdevelopment of temporary living quarters — PBSA, co-living and apart-hotels — and the removal and privatisation of spaces previously used for community, arts and culture.

Walking Tour Booking

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Nervous System

Joan Somers Donnelly — A lecture performance on knowledge, power and planning in Ireland

What do we talk about when we talk about evidence?

And when it comes to interpreting and making decisions based on that evidence, whose knowledge and experience is classed as expertise and whose as anecdote?

Part lecture, part performance, this live event will delve into some of the insights from two Data Stories case studies artist Joan Somers Donnelly worked on that looked at data practices relating to housing and planning policy, involving stakeholders from local and central government as well as from the private and civil society sectors.

Featuring material from case study interviews and workshops, extracts from an arts-based ethnography of seven planners working in local authorities in different parts of the country, and a Reeling in the Years-style segment on Irish local government, Nervous System reflects on how knowledge is understood within planning and policy making in Ireland, and on the bizarre experience of being an artist-interloper in both the civil service and academia.

Nervous System Booking

For booking, see Eventbrite