Over the weekend I noticed the resident robin was building a nest in a small space under the gutter above a shed. I wished it good luck. It would weave a home from humble materials, from twigs and moss, despite the rain, the gloom, the vagaries of weather, during what is called Laethanta na Riabhaiche, or the Borrowed Days, when April borrowed days from March to skin the old brindled cow who had boasted of surviving winter. Anyways, a few days on, the mother-in-law shoved a board into the hole—evicted, oof.

I think of the thousands of people across Ireland who received eviction notices on the 1st of April, after the eviction ban was lifted. Where will they go? Due to the housing crisis, there are not enough emergency accommodation and rental properties; just in our county, only 4 units were available to rent last month, according to Daft.ie. Horrendous. The evicted are the brindled cow, culled by the State for landlords and the property market, for capitalism, which cares naught for human rights. It would make one want to whet a guillotine blade.

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