Home is Where You Moor It

Every May, from across Ireland, liveaboards—people who maintain a boat as their primary residence—journey on waterways to reach Dublin’s Grand Canal Docks. Their tight-knit community shares a reverence for nature and independent thought. Choosing life on the water has deep roots in Ireland. Although today’s liveaboard communities draw from this tradition, their reasons for choosing this housing alternative are also a response to the specific issues of our times. Some are committed to downsizing for ecological sustainability.   Others find it an affordable option in Ireland’s decades-long housing crisis.

As in other year’s the Dublin Rally is a community-wide celebration. This year however, it’s also a time of advocacy by the houseboat owners. If the new Waterways Ireland bylaws are implemented later this year, high increases to mooring fees and more restrictive regulations will threaten the affordability the community of families, elders and students depend on. The current €278 mooring permit cost would rise even for sites without urban serviced mooring options for water and sewage pump out. Those who have such amenities face increases to €4,000 or €7,500. Those without services could still see their permits triple or more. Housing advocates compare the proposed increases to forced eviction, at a time when housing costs have pushed Irish homelessness to record highs.