Today in Ireland there is virtually nowhere indoors for people to congregate that isn't a pub or overpriced cafe. Many people will be aware of the success of autonomous social centres in other European cities, independent of local authority, church, business or other controlling body. These spaces have provided a focal point for many of the social movements in the West, where public spaces have been eaten away by consumerism, property speculation and the culture of the car. Seomra Spraoi is a loose collective working to set up such a space in Dublin and has just acquired a premesis on the Quays right in the centre of the city. If you want to get involved, you're welcome to join the mailing list, come along to one of the meetings, and join in and propose activites. Make your contribution to how this space will evolve!

"Social centres are abandoned buildings - warehouses, factories, military forts, schools - that have been occupied by squatters and transformed into cultural and political hubs, explicitly free from both the market, and from state control... Though it may be hard to tell at first, the social centres aren't ghettos, they are windows — not only into another way to live, disengaged from the state, but also into a new politics of engagement. And yes, it's something maybe beautiful." (Klein, Naomi, Fences and Windows, 2001)

Some groups involved with the project include the Forgotten Zine Archive, and Bad Books Community Library,, the RAG publishing group, and the Revolt Video Collective.

Seomra Spraoi is also closely related to the movements to set up community gardens throughout the city.

You can also watch the film Streaming From The Gaff about one of our first experiments with communication from the old Seomra Spraoi space...

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