When there is nowhere to live because all the houses are let to visiting tourists, a group of activists decided to turn this situation into a tourist attraction itself.
CATU, the Community Action Tenants Union, ran its first ‘AirBnB Guided Tour’ of Galway city centre last week, a district it calls ‘Zombie Galway’ because its neighbourhoods are full of life, but not living.
And although it snaked through the city’s regular tour guide route of Eyre Square, Shop Street and Spanish Arch, the dozen participants who attended, including the Galway Advertiser, were informed of a lot more stats and facts about the realities of living in Galway today, than during its historic past.
Although there was a bit of that too, but it was probably not the Bord Failte-approved version.
We met at the statue of IRA man Liam Mellows, and listened to CATU tour guide Oisín McDonagh explain the history of Eyre Square as a public space we may all enjoy today. It was, however, walled off in 1801 by General Meyrick, and later, from 1873, boasted a statue of Lord Dunkellin, heir to the vast Clanricarde estates which saw mass evictions during the late Nineteenth Century’s Land Wars.
In 1922, this bronze statue was pulled down by a crowd, and speeches made by the Galway Tenants Union from its empty pedestal on how hundreds of city houses were deemed unfit for habitation by medical authorities. Led by a brass band, with a rope around its neck, they dragged the statue to the quays, and hurled it into the sea.
First stop was St Patrick’s Avenue, a charming terrace of pastel painted houses which links the square with the older, disused St Patrick’s Church, once the centre of a bustling urban neighbourhood. Now nearly all the residential and commercial buildings on this northern side of Eyre Square are owned by Glenamaddy’s Comer Brothers’ billion euro property empire.
Every house on the lane has CCTV mounted, and a lock box for short-let tenants. Some properties sport a number of lock boxes, as each room is advertised online individually. It is no wonder that there are nearly 10 times more short lets in Galway than long lets: 1,105 vs 116 across the county, according to an analysis by housing charity Threshold, in March.
Next stop is Shop Street, as our guide explains direct action CATU has taken against landlords illegally evicting long-term tenants to create two-night listings for tourists. This may involve cases brought to the PRTB, complaints to the city council, or just bombarding websites with so many negative reviews that listing platforms, such as AirBnB, remove them. Individual case studies were expounded upon, including concerted action concentrated in specific, residential neighbourhoods.
We hear of the surprising number of apartments built above various commercial buildings in the city as part of their planning grants to encourage city living. Many, if not most, are now the weekend lairs of stag and hen parties.
Finally, we arrive at Spanish Parade, where 11 apartments in the Portmore building, known locally as ‘Madonna’s Bra’ are listed today for short let. A quick, unscientific online search by the Advertiser shows zero long-term flat rentals in a two kilometre radius.
There is plenty to discuss as the tour terminates in the Claddagh, outside a freshly renovated home, advertised for short lets with a brand new lock box mounted by its porch.
The mixture of locals and visitors of at least four nationalities have plenty of queries after this ‘ethical tourism’. The CATU hat is passed around, and new members recruited to the 300-strong Galway team – the fastest growing branch of CATU’s 2,500 members nationally.
The organisation wants more hotels for tourists, and more houses for residents; a stay on evictions, a legal right to a home, a national ban on short-term lets, and platforms such as AirBnB fined for every unit it advertises without planning permission or registration. They want the Occupied Territories legislation, signed into law last week by President Catherine Connolly, to include sanctions on companies like AirBnB, which lists properties in illegal settlements.
The organisers say they do not want to re-invent the wheel, but look at successful policies pursued in places such as Spain and Italy, where residents must nolonger compete for homes with welcome tourists, and the investment they bring.
The Galway tour participants disperse. Most are professionals in their thirties. Nearly all complain they cannot find anywhere to live here, especially close to their work. Many report living in unregistered or tenuous tenancies.
It is the only tour of Galway where participants live tomorrow, the history their guide explains today.
