Priory Hall march to 'refocus minds'
Hundreds of people will take part in a march marking a year since the disastrous Priory Hall apartment complex was declared a firetrap.
Among them will be the 300 angry residents who were forced to move out of their homes in the north Dublin building after officials deemed it unsafe to live in.
They will march from Donaghmede Shopping Centre to Priory Hall, where former residents will give accounts of their year living without a permanent home.
Resident Darren Kelly said the demonstration would remind authorities of the despair 65 families have been forced to endure, after developer Tom McFeely built the complex with serious safety defects.
“We’re hoping to refocus minds,” said Mr Kelly.
He said many of those concerned had been left in limbo, saddled with mortgages for a home they cannot live in.
Residents are in the middle of a mediation process with Dublin City Council and the financial institutions involved.
Neither they nor the council could comment on the process.
Mr Kelly, his wife and two small children are living in temporary accommodation in Belmayne.
His daughter Sophia, now just over a year old, was only three months old when the family had to leave their home.
And he said his son Evan, now three, had been left upset by the ordeal.
“He still asks all the time when our home is going to be mended,” said Mr Kelly.
Dublin City Council has re-homed residents and is claiming the €1m costs back from the Department of the Environment.
