29.01.2025
No Homes To Go To: February Lectures at Christ Church Cathedral Dublin
Visitors to Christ Church cathedral in Dublin are challenged every day by the figure of a homeless person lying on a bench, identifiable only from the stigmata visible on his exposed feet. The provocative sculpture by Timothy Schmalz installed in 2015 recalls the archbishop’s New Year reflection which noted that ‘A fruitfully functioning society in 2025 will look first and last to provision for the vulnerable’.
A new series of free lunchtime lectures on Tuesdays in February at 1.10pm entitled ‘No homes to go to: Dublin charities and homelessness, 1790–2025’, will explore historical and current themes of homelessness over more than two centuries in Dublin. Lectures will focus on the charities that have sought to care for and empower homeless people from the late 18th century to the present day, along with an examination of the economic causes of the persistence of homelessness in the 21st century.
The first talk entitled ‘Serving the poor of Dublin since 1790: The Sick & Indigent Roomkeepers Society’, whose original building still stands north–east of Dublin castle, will be given on Tuesday 4 February by the well–known historian, Felix Larkin, who was chairman of the society from 2012–16. The following week on Tuesday 11 February, a talk titled ‘The poor you will always have with you? A brief history of Dublin’s Mendicity Institution’ will be given by the historian, Eimhin Walsh, who was a director of the institution from 2015–19 and co–wrote its bicentennial history with Audrey Woods in 2018: Dublin Outsiders: A history of the Mendicity Institution 1818–2018.
In 1985, four decades ago this year, Sister Stanislaus Kennedy founded Focus Ireland, and the third lecture in the series will be given on Tuesday 18 February by its current CEO, Pat Dennigan, entitled ‘Challenging homeless, changing lives: Focus Ireland & 40 years of homelessness’. The series will conclude with a talk on ‘Ireland’s housing crisis: What now? What next? on ‘Tuesday 25 February given by Ronan Lyons, an internationally recognised expert on housing markets and housing price indices, and both director of Trinity Research in Social Sciences and associate professor in Economics at Trinity College, Dublin.
Admission is free and all are most welcome.
The lectures take place in the chapter house building upstairs in the music or Henry Roe room, and is at present only accessible by stairs. Thanks are particularly due to the Friends of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin for their generous support of the lecture series and to the dean, CEO and director of music for allowing the use of the space. The lectures follow in a long line of lunchtime series running since 1997, as well as a memorial series to former dean’s verger, Joe Coady (1987–2003), and a much older annual St Stephen’s day lectures begun by cathedral architect, Sir Thomas Drew, which ran from 1891 until at least the 1960s. For further information on this series, email the cathedral research advisor, Dr Stuart Kinsella at archives@christchurch.ie.
You can download a PDF of the programme here.