AN INDEPENDENT SENATOR and former resident of an institution for children that has been re-developed as a co-living space has said that plans to call it The Orphanage were “provocative” and “hurtful”.
Independent Senator Victor Boyhan was speaking after a story in the Irish Times this morning which revealed that the former children’s home – known as the “Bird’s Nest” – was being put on the rental market as new “luxury” co-living accommodation.
The former institution at 19-20 York Road was founded in 1859 and was initially run by Ellen Smyly. It housed up to 150 boys and girls aged between four and 12 at any one time before its closure in 1977. Former residents include Ireland international soccer star Paul McGrath and Senator Boyhan.
It is now being advertised by Brady and McCarthy Letting Agents as “a luxury co-living residence” made up of four suites at a cost of between €1,200 and €1,500 per month.
It is described as “an exclusive offering to corporate clients who want to provide an inclusive living experience for their staff”.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Sean O’Rourke, Boyhan – who grew up in the Bird’s Nest and is the former chairman of an organisation called Past Residents of Smyly Homes and Cottage Homes – said he was unsure why the new letting had been called The Orphanage.
“I suppose I was initially surprised and questioned why it would be called The Orphanage because I grew up there – I went into care in 1961 as an infant baby – and it was never called the orphanage so in all of the time I grew up in this building it was called the Bird’s Nest,” he said.
“I was somewhat surprised by the name the orphanage and I would suggest that it’s a somewhat provocative term or name and I don’t know what that’s about,” he said.
Boyhans said that calling the space an orphanage was “hurtful”.
Also speaking to the programme, Susan Lohan of the Adoption Rights Alliance said that she was “astonished at the tone deafness of the PR people behind this”.
“I sit on collaborative forum of former residents and advocates of people who were in various institutions,” Lohan said.
So the notion that they reiterate the idea that these places were somewhat cosy by calling them homes that doesn’t go down well with people who were formerly incarcerated in those places.
Lettings
The property was listed on Daft.ie and Brady and McCarthy Letting Agents’ website. It also had its own dedicated website with a description and videos of the property. The listing as well as the website have since been removed.
Brady and McCarthy Letting Agents directed queries in relation to the property to their client. TheJournal.ie had received no response from the client by the time of publication.
Co-living
A debate has been ongoing in recent months around co-living homes in Ireland, in which residents have their own bedrooms but share a kitchen and other living spaces.
The debate emerged on foot of a developer’s plans to build a block of 208 studio dwellings which would see dozens of people sharing one kitchen.
The proposed Dublin development would be one of the first “co-living” buildings that became permissible under design standard guidelines for new apartments that were introduced in March 2018.
The Bird’s Nest orphanage is included in a list of institutions covered by the Redress Board following the Ryan Report in 2009.
Senator Boyhan said that while abuses had been carried out at the Bird’s Nest, there were also good stories to tell about the place where he grew up.
“Yes there were difficult times. Yes there was abuses. Yes there was emotional physical and sexual abuse that seems to have been in other institutions,” he said, there were also “good stories there and that’s important to tell”.
Boyhan said he supported any plans to increase housing supply in order to combat the housing crisis.
“I support any form of housing or homes that will help people. Co-living with 4o units per kitchen, I don’t agree with that,” he said.
But I think co-living has a place as part of a suite of measure to address what is an issue of social and affordable housing.
Both Boyhan and Lohan called for the name of the property to be changed.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say