“Once you have peace outside and nice neighbours, anywhere can become a home”—Caoimhe, from St. Canice’s Hall,talks about settling in to the development of 32 apartments, which was launched in March 2022.

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“I live with my husband and two girls. I’m from Glasnevin, not too far away. My girls are eighteen and fifteen. Junior cert is coming up soon. My eldest is doing Primary School Teaching in university and is enjoying it so far.

We were living in Glasnevin beforehand. We were renting and had an elderly landlord in a nursing home. It was touch and go as to what would happen. We loved living there. I was nervous when we were offered St. Canice’s, I didn’t know Finglas too well. I was a little worried about my family being accepted into the community, but it’s been fine. My block is relatively small. I know the neighbours on this landing and would know a few others from meetings and such.

I’d be interested in joining a Member Association or any meeting of the neighbours, it’s important to know each other. We had some anti-social issues before the gates were put up at the side entrance. It’s important to know that people are keeping a look out and that we can look out for some of our more vulnerable neighbours. There are a few people with disabilities on the floor below us.

It’s our first time living in an apartment, I always lived in houses. We’ve adjusted well. Once you have peace outside and nice neighbours, anywhere can become a home.

I’m doing a course and am looking forward to finishing in May. My husband and I had a small food business making condiments. During the summer, the cost of raw materials became so expensive and the supply of things after covid dipped, it just destroyed everything. We had to sit down critically and ask, ‘is this feasible?’— We decided to take a pause with the war in Ukraine, Covid-19, and recession looming. The cost of production went up because a lot of the glass comes from Italy, fuelled by petrol coming from Ukraine, it all had a knock-on effect. The hot sauce business could restart tomorrow, you never know with these things. I decided to do go back to Further Education in the meantime.

We were unlucky to have been reeling from the first recession where we lost our home. That’s how we ended up on the housing list. We became accidental tenants, there are lot of people like ourselves. There’s stigma against being in social housing, and people don’t often consider the diversity in terms of backgrounds people come from."

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