An arts centre is a f itting tribute to Seán O’Casey

THE playwright Seán O’Casey’s name is synonymous with Dublin’s North Inner City so turning his last home on the North Circular Road into an arts centre seems a better tribute to his memory than more homeless accommodation.

Yet unless a motion by Labour councillors at the next council meeting wins the day, homeless accommodation is what is in store for the dilapidated building at 422 North Circular Road, which has just been bought by Dublin City Council.

The Labour motion, backed by Sabina Higgins, right, the President’s wife argues that the ground-floor flat where O’Casey wrote Juno And The Paycock and the rest of his Dublin trilogy could become a vibrant community and arts venue.

They are too polite to say perhaps that the North Circular Road, once one of Dublin’s more elegant streets with its high Victorian houses running down to the Phoenix Park gates, is, like No 422, run down and in need of some TLC.

Most of the fine houses on the NCR are broken up into flats. The road, which contains several emergency accommodation units for families as well as homeless shelters, also does more than its fair share to ease the burden of the housing crisis. What it deserves now is a shot in the arm culturally and a venue where locals and visitors can experience visual arts, public readings and, perhaps best of all, the great wit and drama of the Seán O’Caseys of tomorrow.

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