Diners took afternoon tea in the swanky surrounds of newly-opened The Ivy on Dawson Street and the pristine glass turnstiles of One Molesworth Street, the capital’s newest Manhattan-style office building, glistened in the midday sun.

However, sandwiched between all this prosperity, property and progress were several thousand men, women and children, including students, Travellers, disabled people and activists, demanding the Government help the 10,000 homeless citizens living in emergency accommodation.

The crowd at yesterday’s housing protest was mammoth in size, taking up the entirety of Molesworth Street, but mellow in demeanour. There was little to be excited about.

Thousands of students from around the country taking part in #RaiseTheRoof rally in Dublin pic.twitter.com/NywizQhuLk

— Colm Hand (@ColmHand) October 3, 2018

Tiny, the pet Jack Russell of housing campaigner Fr Peter McVerry drew a large cheer as he accompanied the priest on stage to deliver the closing speech. Fr McVerry delivered words he’d said before and the crowd listened to an oration they too had heard before, and not just from the activist priest.

The hope and expectation of the crowd lay in whether or not those who can take action, those in Leinster House, were listening.

There were plenty of opposition parties at the protest, as there were political flags, banners and figureheads close to the cameras by Buswells Hotel, but politics aside, there were thousands of ordinary citizens who had turned out because things could not “get any worse”.

“I’m here because I don’t think it could get any worse. I’ve never seen anything like it. I’m over 60 and I’m from Dublin and, fortunately, I own my own home, but I can see poverty all around me and people sleeping on the canal. Last year, there were 20 people sleeping on the canal near where I live, up the road from [the Minister for Finance] Paschal Donohoe’s office and Paschal Donohoe’s home. The whole thing is disgraceful,” said Mary Kelly, holding her handmade sign, which had an illustration of a child holding a balloon.

It read: “And if you tolerate this then your children will be next.”

Thousands of people took part in a rally in Dublin city centre to demand action on housing, homelessness and issues within the private rental market. | https://t.co/yaqrp6YSCv pic.twitter.com/yd1Qvcz8ok

— RTÉ News (@rtenews) October 3, 2018

A younger person unwilling to tolerate the housing situation was 19-year-old student Conor Kelly, who attended yesterday’s protest after seeing the effects the crisis had on his friends.

“I just noticed how bad my community has gotten, personally, with the housing crisis and I just think it’s really important that students come out and show their support. I’d have a lot of friends who have seen the worst of it and I feel if I don’t act today, I’ll be doing the same thing in two months’ time, which I’ve no problem doing, but I’m a full-time student and I’d prefer to stay in class,” he said.

Conor said the Government would have to listen to the protesters, for fairly obvious reasons.

“I think the Government has no other option but to listen to us, we literally have megaphones with huge screechers on them. They have to listen to us, whether they like it or not.”

Sinn Féin’s housing spokesperson says the Raise the Roof housing protest 'marks the beginning of a mass movement demanding change' pic.twitter.com/wZqrkGaGE8

— RTÉ News (@rtenews) October 3, 2018

Yesterday’s protest brought together various organisations, charities and political parties in Irish life, including Women’s Aid and the National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI).

NWCI director Orla O’Connor said her organisation had been mobilised because of the number of calls it received from women experiencing a housing crisis.

“We’re constantly being contacted by women who have no place to go, who have been pushed out of rented accommodation and are just in this bind of trying to find accommodation and trying to keep their lives together for their children. Having no home to go to makes it so difficult to do anything else in life and what so many women are talking about is that struggle of trying to maintain a normal life for their children,” said Ms O’Connor.

As Fr McVerry prepared to speak, he stood between the back of the stage and the front of Leinster House, quietly observing his surrounds with his dog. A stone’s throw to his left was the doorway where Jonathan Corrie had died nearly four years ago.

Fr McVerry was preparing to say what he said back then, namely, that social housing and a change in Government policy was needed.

Before going on stage he remarked: “It’s a fantastic turnout. A midday on a Wednesday, when people are working?

“The only way we’re going to change Government policy is through crowds like this demanding change.”

As the protest ended, two young women at the back of the crowd, having left The Ivy after lunch and wanting to access Molesworth Street through the several thousand protestors, had a different perspective.

“Oh Jesus, now we’ll have to go all the way ’round.”

Fr McVerry believes that after four years of intense protesting, people are only now “starting to wake up” to this crisis.

Some still haven’t woken.