There are 79 new hotels in development in Dublin right now.
Calls for Dublin City Councillors to block the demolishment of the last Magdalene Laundry in State ownership have been renewed following the news that Dublin City Council is to vote next Monday on the prospective sale of the site.
The two-acre site, located on Sean McDermott Street, may potentially be sold to a Japanese hotel chain with plans to build a 350-bed hotel, a community centre, a supermarket, 76 apartments and a car park.
The council has said that the majority of the apartments will be social housing for older people. The reported sale price is €14 million.
Disposing of council properties like this one is a “reserved function”, meaning that councillors have the final word on it, rather than council management.
A majority vote from councillors present would be needed to back the sale.
Back in June, a meeting of up to 100 people was held to discuss what should be done with the site.
The meeting was arranged by Social Democrats Councillor Gary Gannon, who is calling for the location to become a “site of conscience” which commemorates the history of the Magdalene women.
The party have set up a petition online, calling on councillors to reject the sale. It’s close to 7,600 signatures at time of writing.
Each Dublin city councillor will be e-mailed a copy of the petition ahead of the meeting.
Sinn Féin, the political party with the most seats on the council, will not support putting a hotel on the site, says Councillor Janice Boylan.
“Putting a hotel there, which is eventually going to have chambermaids making beds and doing laundry – it is not right for that site and doesn’t sit well with us at all,” she says.
Dublin Lord Mayor Nial Ring is particularly passionate about the project, citing “that a suitable, and agreed, Commemorative Memorial is placed at the site of the former Magdalene Laundry on Sean McDermott Street” as one of the six priorities for his term of office.
The former laundry featured prominently during the recent Papal visit, as thousands marched in solidarity with clerical abuse survivors from the Garden of Remembrance to the site.
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge
