Following seven generations of a family as they move through history, beginning with a nineteenth-century labourers' cottage and ending with a present-day quest to get a footing on the property ladder, Housing a Nation paints a picture of how and where Irish people have lived in the past - and shows us how each era and generation has influenced the state of housing in Ireland today.
From the shadow of the Big House to Ballymun's high-rises, from the Land League to the Celtic Tiger, this book reveals how housing reflects deeper struggles over class, nationalism and ideology.
A landmark history blending archival material with social commentary, Housing a Nation shows how homes are more than places to live - they are the lens through which we understand identity, power and belonging. And the key to imagining a different future.
Lorcan Sirr is a housing policy analyst and senior lecturer at Technological University Dublin. He is a former columnist with The Sunday Times and a regular contributor to The Irish Times.
He has been visiting professor of housing in the Universities of Tarragona and Galway, and gives many talks each year in Ireland on this hotly debated topic. He has been a board member of the Fire Station Artists' Studios and the Irish Refugee Council, and currently serves on the board of Threshold.
