Launching his latest book collaboration with Belfast photographer Mal McCann, Dublin TD Eoin Ó Broin urged politicians, civil servants, architects and planners to come together to launch an ambitious public housing programme.
'Flats and Cottages - Herbert Simms and the Housing of Dublin's Working Class 1932-48' explores the contribution of English urbanist and planner Simms to Dublin where he oversaw the building of 17,000 flats and cottages.
Including interviews and commentary by Eoin Ó Broin and striking photographs by Mal McCann, the book is the latest collaboration between the two.
The former Belfast councillor and now Dublin TD also urged urbanists not to turn their back on high-density, high-rise solutions to the housing crisis, recalling how he had lived in Gráinne House in the New Lodge both before and after its renovation. Post-refurb, he said, his 13th floor flat was among the best homes he had ever lived in.
Simms' mammoth housing enterprise came at a time when the Free State Government was strapped for cash but still drove forward a building programme which transformed the lives of tenants and changed the city.
"In this visually striking book," write publishers Merrion Press, "Eoin Ó Broin and Mal McCann utilise prose, photography and interviews to tell the story of Herbert Simms' work during these tumultuous years and give voice to the history and experience of today's residents of his buildings. Flats and Cottages also examines the lessons that can be applied to our own contemporary housing crisis to ensure that working people have access to decent and affordable homes."
In praising the impact of public housing – a word he prefers to social housing – Ó Broin stressed that access to a safe, warm home with modern amenities goes way beyond simply providing shelter. A home, he said, transforms lives and makes it possible for tenants to raise families and seek out employment opportunities while also providing a foundation for building strong communities.
An English-trained professional and World War I veteran who was appointed as Dublin's first dedicated housing architect in 1932, Herbert Simms took his own life in 1948.
