Statistics don’t bear out emotive reaction to Roscommon eviction

World of Politics with Harry McGee – harrymcgee@gmail.com

What has happened in Roscommon over the past two weeks has been very worrying, and shocking, on a number of levels.  The initial eviction of three members of a family, in their fifties and sixties, was heavy-handed with a large security team drafted in from outside the county, and possibly outside the jurisdiction. And there is no doubt about that.

When I was a kid at home one of the pictures in the hallway was one that depicted a Mass during penal times. It showed a priest and a devout congregation at a Mass Rock. In the distance, there were redcoat soldiers moving in. Half way between them, there was a boy in rags running towards the congregation to raise the alarm.

The other compelling image (in all our history books) was of families being evicted, or burned out, by ruthless landlords through their landlords and bailiffs.

Often, they would show the thatched roof burning and the emaciated family in rags walking away with their scant possessions, wearing expressions of defeat and resignation.

So these images of dispossession were powerful. They informed my childhood and are still there in my adult psyche. Not just for me, but it is a folk memory for most Irish people.

A narrative has grown up since the recession that those heartless landlord repossession were being revived – but this time it was the banks, and later the vulture funds, that were doing it.

If you follow social media, you would swear it was happening on an hourly, daily and weekly basis all over the country. There is simply no evidence to support it.

There are a few things that need to said about the eviction and its aftermath – not least that the bank in question, KBC, should have shown more responsibility, respect and tact in carrying out the court order.

That said, court orders for possession are only taken out in extremis, when all other avenues are exhausted.

What happened last Saturday night was disgraceful. Local vigilantes arrived in the middle of the night, assaulted the security guards, killed a dog, and set vehicles on fire. Whoever was responsible should be brought to justice and prosecuted.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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