The Dublin Housing Action Committee (DHAC)
The Dublin Housing Action Committee was a 1960s protest against housing shortages in Ireland's capital city. It arose from a serious shortage of affordable housing, combined with a large number of properties standing empty. It also functioned as a way for a broad range of left-wingers in the Republic of Ireland to address themselves to a wider audience. The Secretary of the committee was Dennis Dennehy (then a member of the Irish Communist Organisation).
Here is a document of some interest to the left. For the DHAC was one of the activities which symbolised the - as it were - left turn of Sinn Féin in the 1960s. It was explicitly positioned towards agitating against the housing shortages in Dublin in the mid to late 1960s. This sort of populist mobilisation around 'bread and butter' issues was crucial to the later self-identification of Official Sinn Féin, and representative of the abandonment of the central issue of combating partition to those who disagreed with the 'political' path such as Provisional Sinn Féin (although not entirely, since there were more diverse strands to that latter position than some often give credit). That the DHAC was home to a broader range of members from a wider constituency on the left doesn't as such undermine either thesis, but perhaps point to it acting as a vehicle for competing, and complementary, approaches. Any organisation that could bring together the late Seán Ó Cionnaith (who I well remember from the 1980s) and Dennis Dennehy had to be, per definition a bit more complex than some histories seek to present.
This short document from June 1969 gives a flavour of the DHAC. Although far from overtly party political, there is no mention of Sinn Féin, it is on all other levels an intensely political document, not least in the attacks on the Labour Party in particular.
We will report on the latest developments in Landlord racketeering, evictions, squatting etc., as well as publicising the numerous successful agitations we are waging on behalf of the homeless and rack-rented workers of Dublin. And...
The most politically advanced members of the DHAC have taken the ultimate step in the present housing agitation; they have squatted in some of the idle, surplus property owned by speculating Landlord parasites.... Actions speak louder than words and one homeless family squatting in some Rachman's idle property is worth a bellyfull of promises from the so-called Socialists of Fianna Fail or Labour...
The Dublin Housing Action Committee was a 1960s protest against housing shortages in Ireland's capital city. It arose from a serious shortage of affordable housing, combined with a large number of properties standing empty. It also functioned as a way for a broad range of left-wingers in the Republic of Ireland to address themselves to a wider audience. The Secretary of the committee was Dennis Dennehy (then a member of the Irish Communist Organisation).
Here is a document of some interest to the left. For the DHAC was one of the activities which symbolised the - as it were - left turn of Sinn Féin in the 1960s. It was explicitly positioned towards agitating against the housing shortages in Dublin in the mid to late 1960s. This sort of populist mobilisation around 'bread and butter' issues was crucial to the later self-identification of Official Sinn Féin, and representative of the abandonment of the central issue of combating partition to those who disagreed with the 'political' path such as Provisional Sinn Féin (although not entirely, since there were more diverse strands to that latter position than some often give credit). That the DHAC was home to a broader range of members from a wider constituency on the left doesn't as such undermine either thesis, but perhaps point to it acting as a vehicle for competing, and complementary, approaches. Any organisation that could bring together the late Seán Ó Cionnaith (who I well remember from the 1980s) and Dennis Dennehy had to be, per definition a bit more complex than some histories seek to present.
This short document from June 1969 gives a flavour of the DHAC. Although far from overtly party political, there is no mention of Sinn Féin, it is on all other levels an intensely political document, not least in the attacks on the Labour Party in particular.
We will report on the latest developments in Landlord racketeering, evictions, squatting etc., as well as publicising the numerous successful agitations we are waging on behalf of the homeless and rack-rented workers of Dublin. And...
The most politically advanced members of the DHAC have taken the ultimate step in the present housing agitation; they have squatted in some of the idle, surplus property owned by speculating Landlord parasites.... Actions speak louder than words and one homeless family squatting in some Rachman's idle property is worth a bellyfull of promises from the so-called Socialists of Fianna Fail or Labour...