Cork protester ends four year vigil today

A Cork musician and housing activist will end his four year vigil at the gates of Dáil Éireann today.

In May 2022, driven by “blind frustration” and the fear of becoming homeless himself, Martin Leahy undertook his first one-man protest outside government buildings, performing his song ‘Everyone Should Have A Home’.

Since then, he has made the long trip from Cork to the capital every single week where he performs his song on loop in the hope that the message might get through to someone. Today will be his 200th and final protest.

As the milestone looms, Martin admits the gravity of the moment is beginning to weigh on him.

He said: “I’m trying not to think about it too much because when I do, I guess I get nervous.

“A friend of mine said to me, ‘It must be hard to keep going and it must be hard to stop,’ and that’s the way I feel about it.”

A reluctant activist

Despite being the face of the weekly protest for nearly half a decade, Martin said he never set out to be a campaigner. Before the housing crisis threatened his own security, he was simply a musician. But when his Bandon landlord decided to sell up, unaffordable rent prices drove him to consider emigration or face possible homelessness.

“I wouldn’t have been an activist before I did this,” he explained.

“Initially it was kind of blind frustration, desperation. I never busked or anything. I just went up there one day with my guitar and I had the song. So, I just sang it on a loop for an hour,” added Martin.

That one hour turned into four years, fuelled by a refusal to normalise the current state of Irish housing.

He said: “That was always my kind of driving motivation, that it can’t be accepted.

“It can’t be accepted to become part of life here, and it doesn’t have to be.”

The toll of the road

Martin’s decision to end the protest at the 200-week mark was not made lightly. The logistics of the weekly commute and the emotional labour involved eventually took their toll.

Martin said: “The things that were bothering me just became too big, which was kind of energy wise, finance wise, and just giving up the Thursday every week.

“I’d be wrecked and so I am looking forward to having those Thursdays back.”

Though this particular protest will come to an end tomorrow, Martin remains deeply critical of the Government’s response to the housing crisis and said his “eyes are open” now to wider injustices.

“I’m still very frustrated and angry,” he said.

“That I had to do it all and that anyone has to do this. Why should our time be taken up with trying to fight for what I consider a human right?

“Once your eyes are open to an injustice like that, and being around other activists, your eyes get opened to everything else. I do plan to continue in some form; I'll just take a bit of a break after this last protest,” he added.

To mark the final protest, Martin will be joined by activists, poets, musicians, and politicians including Rory Hearne, Eoin Ó Broin, Richard Boyd Barrett, Jude Sherry, Frank O'Connor, Sophia and Bernard Mulvany, and Margaret O’Regan.

He will then perform one more rally of his protest song ‘Everyone Should Have A Home’ from 1pm.