What does 21st-century Ireland have in common with mid-19th-century Ireland? New analysis, conducted by Prof Eoin McLoughlin of Heriot-Watt University and Dr Richard Mc Mahon of Mary Immaculate College in Limerick, reveals that it is evictions.
Their analysis of the contemporary rate of evictions viewed against Ireland’s historical record was published last week on RTÉ’s Brainstorm, a platform for academics and researchers to publish articles and research.
According to McLoughlin and Mc Mahon’s analysis, the rate of evictions relative to the number of households between 1855 and 1877 was 0.14 per 100 households, and during the Land War a few years later was 0.48 per 100.
Using the latest Census data and figures from the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB), they calculated that the “modern rate implied by recent RTB data is roughly one eviction notice per 100 households (and higher if we only consider rented households) in both 2023 and 2024″. In the third quarter of 2025, the RTB reported that there were 5,405 eviction notices, a 35 per cent increase on the same period in 2024.
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This historical comparison gets starker when one considers the cited renter share of the market in the 1800s (96 per cent) versus today (33 per cent). The researchers deduce, “it is not unreasonable to suggest that we are now seeing eviction rates that have not been seen in Ireland since the 1850s ...[and this is] not a short-term fluctuation but part of a sustained pattern of unusually high levels of tenant displacement”.
Today, evictions continue to be a driver of family homelessness, just as they were in the 19th century.
In the Dublin region, leaving aside the huge number of individual adults who are homeless, there were 1,766 families in emergency accommodation in December 2025, 3,883 of whom are children and 3,159 adults. This was an increase of 299 families – a 20 per cent rise – compared with December 2024. Last year, the number of families presenting to emergency accommodation averaged 88 a month.
Of that December figure, the primary reason the highest proportion of those families were presenting to homeless accommodation was because of notices of termination: 31 per cent, or 20 families. Nine families presented due to family reunification. Eight presented due to the birth of a child. Six were due to a relationship breakdown, and six because they were leaving direct provision (and as we know, it is extremely difficult for people to find a place to rent when they do).
The November figures follow this pattern; 29 families (29 per cent) were newly homeless due to notices of termination, four from leaving direct provision. October showed 30 families (35 per cent) were homeless due to notices of termination, seven (8 per cent) due to leaving direct provision. Last September, 36 families were homeless because of notices of termination , and on the sorry tale goes.
Eviction is proportionally the largest single cause of family homelessness. Child homelessness is the most devastating aspect of this crisis. Babies and small children aren’t presenting to homeless services alone, they’re within families.
There are other comparisons one could make with centuries gone by, although of course historical comparisons are not like for like. Much has changed with the passage of time and yet certain themes still prevail or recur. There’s the reality of Ireland regressing to households of multiple generations due to the housing crisis, with older people, their adult children, their children, and even their children’s children all living under the same roof. The 2022 Census showed that more than 440,000 young adults were living in family homes. Seventy per cent of 25-year-olds are still living at home with their parents.
We know that evictions are a scourge, and the stress and trauma they cause is terrible and long-lasting. It’s a special kind of hardship for babies and young children to endure.
So what to do? Well, there’s another new figure to hand. Building more social housing is now as popular in Ireland as Ireland’s membership of the European Union. In last year’s European Movement EU poll, support for Ireland’s membership of the EU stood at 82 per cent. This is now on par with the 81 per cent of the public who want the Government to build more social housing, regardless of local objections, according to The Irish Times/Ipsos B&A Poll published last Friday.
In the first nine months of 2025, just 30 per cent of the Government’s new-build social homes target was met. The target was 10,000. In total, 3,134 were built. If the Government wants to be attuned to the public then prioritising public housing at scale is clearly the answer. These are tenancies which can be controlled; in which the landlord doesn’t “flee”; which reduce housing lists and offer affordable and long-term shelter. Every other aspect of housing policy that has been implemented for over a decade has resulted in rents rising, evictions increasing and homelessness figures spiralling upwards.
Evictions were a stain on the 19th century – as they are now. Evictions then were a generational trauma that shaped the collective social and political psyche of this island. For that grim pattern to repeat through the centuries is unthinkable.
