A long-time commentator on the Irish housing crisis, 44-year-old Maynooth social policy professor Rory Hearne will stand for the Social Democrats in the European elections on June 7, aiming to take one of the five seats in the Midlands-Northwest constituency.

As a father of four who already has a successful academic and writing career – Rory started his career writing for Hot Press and has written acclaimed books such as Gaffs and Housing Shock – why would he subject himself to the gruelling rigours of an election, given the increasingly anti-political tenor of the times.

“There’s massive anger out there towards politicians,” he acknowledges. “The reason I’m running now is straightforward – it’s housing. I’ve been highlighting and working on a campaign for many years. In the last couple of years, I can only call it the human carnage of the housing crisis. On a daily basis, people are contacting me, saying, ‘I’m going to be evicted’ or ‘I’m going to be made homeless’.

“I actively went out and encouraged people to contact me so I could share their stories, because I do feel there’s been this burying of the human impact of the housing crisis.”

In particular, Hearne cites his stand against investor funds in 2021 as a pivotal moment.

“A lot of people in their twenties, thirties and even into their forties, contacted me going, ‘We feel utterly hopeless’,” he reflects. “Then as the elections came on the horizon over the past couple of months, people contacted me, saying, ‘We really hope you run’. I discussed it with the Social Democrats, who were very supportive and I joined them. They said, ‘What about Midlands-North West?’ and I said, ‘That sounds like a great idea, I’m in Maynooth’.

“In a certain sense, I feel like I’m putting my money where my mouth is. Having stood up on the issue and criticised the government, and with people saying, ‘Will you stand?’, I feel an obligation.”

But why seek political office in Europe rather than at home?

“A lot of people are asking that,” he replies. “I’m like, ‘Europe has a really important role now, and increasingly so’. In housing, but also when we look at what’s happening in the growth of the far right, and the rise in anti-immigrant sentiment. And of course, there’s climate change. Housing is obviously at the heart of what I’m concerned about, but I’m also really concerned about climate change and the type of societies we’re creating.

“Europe has a massive role in all that, and workers’ rights similarly. Change comes at a local level, but also at European and global level. From the UN to the EU, and the Dail to local councils, they all have a role. I think what I’ve been very effective at is hammering the government, and being a voice that’s not afraid to challenge investor funds, landlords and developers. We don’t have an MEP who does that in a connected way back to Ireland.

“In other countries, they do. Their MEPs play a much more active role and don’t just disappear off to Brussels. I think I could do that. It would give me time to advocate for solutions to the Irish government – for example, on how the European Investment Bank could be used to invest in housing here. Really I would see myself being a thorn in the side of the government in terms of housing.”

Rory Hearne. Copyright Miguel Ruiz.

With the government having continually failed to make any inroads on the housing crisis, it feels like we are stuck in an especially grim Groundhog Day loop. I describe the government’s failure on the issue as a scandal, but Rory goes further.

“It’s more than a scandal, it’s social vandalism,” he emphasises. “It upsets me – I’ve cried on TV. It continues to upset me, because I emotionally connect with what’s happening, whether it’s the 4,000 children in homelessness, or the half a million young people stuck in their childhood box-rooms. Then there’s the million renters living in terror of being evicted, or the hundreds of thousands who’ve been forced to emigrate.

“As I’ve described it, the major political parties have broken society. For the last 10 years, Fine Gael – supported by Fianna Fáil, Labour and the Greens – focused on this narrow idea of, ‘Let’s recover the economy and property prices’. They did not give a shit about the generations coming up behind. You are right to say we are stuck right now, but these elections – the general, European and locals – offer the generation who’ve been screwed by these governments, the chance to say, ‘We are now gonna un-stick the situation. We’re gonna remove you from local, national and European politics’.

“We need a political revolution of that scale – we need Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to be decimated. There was a figure that came out from the National Youth Council last week – half of 18-29 year olds have low mental well-being. How the government didn’t resign on that day, going, ‘We have utterly fucking failed you…’ Where is the shame?”

The bookies may have the betting against Hearne, with half a dozen odds-on candidates ahead of him, but he’s defiant.

“I think those odds don’t reflect anything right now,” he says. “Number one, the campaign hasn’t started, and we know that things shift massively. And these are going to be local and European elections, when people will really be switching on in the last couple of weeks, even in the days running up to it.”

Elsewhere, Hearne stridently criticises the growth in far right activism in Ireland.

“At the moment, we’re seeing this ‘Ireland is full’ horseshit,” he says. “There’s this idea that people are increasingly anti-immigrant, but actually, the opinion polls will show the issues of most concern are housing, healthcare and public services. In part, it’s because the big parties are going along with dog whistles to the far right. There’s a huge amplifying of a message that isn’t actually being believed by the majority of people.”

One of the major recent political moments in Ireland was the defeat of the family and care referendums, for which all the major opposition parties – including the Soc Dems – joined the government in advocating for a Yes result. Ultimately, a strong anti-government sentiment was detectable in the sizeable No vote.

“Absolutely,” says Hearne. “In particular, the issue of disability services rightly mobilised a lot of people. Because literally in the days before the vote, it became very clear the government was not trying to progress disability rights and services. The wording was developed in order to actively reduce the rights people with disabilities and their families would be able to access.
“I think that played a really significant role in people going ‘No’. I don’t buy that we had progress around Repeal and Marriage Equality, and this was a conservative backlash.”

In terms of the broader issues facing Europe, the EU has largely gone for a containment strategy against Russia in the Ukrainian war. It’s difficult to see too any other viable approach, given that the continent is faced with such a dangerous – not to mention nuclear-armed – adversary in Vladimir Putin. It truly is an absolute nightmare.

“It is,” nods Hearne. “Europe has responded in the best way it could. We rightfully absolutely opposed the horrific invasion of Ukraine. There’s no question the Russian invasion is imperialist, and it was horrific watching it. I would support how the EU has responded, and I’m proud of Ireland taking in Ukrainian refugees. What I’d say is we have to continue to support Ukraine. I think we also need to find ways of peace, and ways of not creating a permanent war there.”

Finally, as a long-time advocate for the Palestinian cause, Hearne is utterly appalled at Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, and equally dismayed at the hopeless passivity of US President Joe Biden.

“I do think Joe Biden has lost the love of the Irish people, and I think rightfully,” he says. “I do hope he feels that, and I would be part of protests if he came back here again.”