The singer was speaking to Ryan Tubridy about homelessness on the Late Late Show.
Singer Glen Hansard confirmed that the Home Sweet Home group that has taken over the NAMA-owned Apollo House in Dublin are occupying the building illegally.
Hansard is one of a number of well-known figures, alongside the likes of Hozier, Saoirse Ronan, director Jim Sheridan and Mattress Mick, involved in Home Sweet Home, a group that have taken over Apollo House, a vacant building on Tara Street in Dublin city centre, for use as a homeless shelter.
Speaking about the actions taken by Home Sweet Home to Ryan Tubridy after performing a song with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Hansard said: “We are involved in an act of civil disobedience. I call upon the very spirit of the Irish people to look at this, it is an illegal act.
“We have taken a building that essentially belongs to the people of Ireland and that has been lying empty,” Hansard added.
“We are involved in an act of civil disobedience” @Glen_Hansard tells The #LateLate Show #HomeSweetHome #OccupyNama https://t.co/jMzPJTVCyn
— The Late Late Show (@RTELateLateShow) December 16, 2016
“The Government will shelter 200 people this Christmas and there’s 260 people between the Royal Canal and the Grand Canal in Dublin. Now this is not only a Dublin issue but between the Royal Canal and the Grand Canal there are 260 people tonight homeless. What we would like to do is bridge the gap… we’ll be asking people to volunteer, we’ll be asking people to get behind the idea. It is a radical idea.”
Asked what the response would be if the group are told by the authorities to vacate the building, Hansard said: “You appeal to the better nature of the Government and NAMA. This is a NAMA-owned building. If everybody pays tax in this audience, if anyone knows their stuff they know that that is essentially our building. We are just going to take it for a few months.”
Clip via Home Sweet Home
Hansard, whose comments were greeted with loud cheers by the audience, added: “What we are trying to do is get a national conversation started. This should be a national emergency… the homelessness is at a level now, not since the Famine have families been homeless like they are right now. It is really, really difficult.”
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