FROM THE ARCHIVES:Parts of Dublin were literally in a state of collapse in the early 1960s when at least four people were killed by falling buildings. The latest victims, nine-year-old Marie Varley and Linda Byrne, aged 8, killed by collapsing buildings in Fenian Street, set off a wave of panic and bureaucratic activity. – JOE JOYCE
A SPECIAL emergency meting of Dublin Corporation tonight will consider the recent series of tenement house collapses in the city which cost the lives of four people and brought hardship and nightly terror to a great many more in the past week.
The council will make its arrangements for the promised Ministerial inquiry into the whole affair, and will consider the steps already taken and those that require to be taken for the 155 families forced to leave houses that are now considered as unfit for habitation.
The two houses which fell in Fenian street on Wednesday, killing two young girls have been responsible for an outcry which will lead to an appraisal of the tenement housing situation in the entire city.
Following the collapse of the houses on Wednesday, the Corporation was once receiving calls from people at the rate of one every minute. This situation has now eased off, but there are still a number of calls about buildings which appear to be dangerous being received by the housing department.
By today the Corporation will have dealt with 155 families displaced because of dangerous buildings. On Saturday 84 keys were offered, and yesterday a further 18 were offered. A spokesman for the housing department said that many more offers would be made today.
Corporation workers were out in shifts working non-stop throughout the last few days shoring up buildings and examining tenements which had been reported to be in a dangerous condition. The thunderstorms on Tuesday were instrumental in uncovering cracks and other defects and weaknesses in the buildings.
Although the Corporation had done a fast job in re-housing families, for some people it was a weekend in the street. At Hendrick street off the Haymarket, Nos 6, 7 and 8 were declared to be in a very dangerous condition and the tenants were advised to vacate them within minutes.
Mrs Bridie Perry, who lived in No 8, said for two years she had been going to the Corporation three days a week to try and get something done. “I tried to get in to see someone, but it was useless,” she said.
The women and children were given hotel accommodation by he Irish Red Cross Society, and the male members of the families stayed up during the two nights guarding their furniture and personal belongings.
A corner house in North King street was shored up by workers from the Corporation at the weekend, and the tenants advised to leave but they refused. Three women live in the building, the top portion of which is jutting out at an obviously dangerous angle.
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