Ian Lumley (born 1958) is an Irish conservationist, who has notably served with An Taisce - The National Trust for Ireland over an extended period, principally as its heritage officer, and latterly as one of its three senior managers, as head of advocacy.
Lumley was a volunteer with An Taisce for many years before becoming its heritage officer around 2000, [1] and in 2023 taking up the new post on a rationalised senior management team of three, as "head of advocacy", overseeing the organisation's work on planning and policy. [2] Described in the Irish Times as "one of Ireland's most courageous guardians of the built and natural environment", [1] Lumley has focused his approach on using legal tools and processes to address developments of concern. [1]
Lumley has also worked as director of projects with the Dublin Civic Trust [3] and held a senior role with the Spitalfields Historic Buildings Trust in London. [3] Much of Lumley's work, even in formal roles, has been unpaid. [4]
In January 2005, Lumley was barred from acting as a director of a number of companies for five years, after a High Court hearing into the liquidation of a limited company he co-founded to campaign on environmental issues. [5]
In April 2019, Lumley lost an appeal to An Bord Pleanála on plans to extend the number of Airbnb-style studio lettings at his Georgian property in Dublin. This followed the refusal of planning permission to Lumley and builder Patrick Wigglesworth to convert the lower ground floor of their property at 3 Henrietta Street into three short-term-lease studio apartments. [4]
In January 2023, Lumley was sued in the High Court by one of his tenants, Luke Barnett, alleging that he was threatened with eviction. [6] Barnett claimed he was woken up on 16 January 2023 by loud banging, and found Lumley and some masked men standing there. Lumley said that Barnett did not have a tenancy agreement, and also alleged Barnett had received repeated warnings over his behaviour, and claimed Barnett had engaged in repeated anti-social behaviour. The case was settled on confidential terms. [6]
In 1982, Lumley purchased a house on Henrietta Street in Dublin, a street of substantially intact Georgian buildings, and worked on its restoration over many years. His kitchen was used as a television scene in the series Penny Dreadful. [7] He partnered with a developer to restore another property on Henrietta Street, partly funded by short-let accommodation. [4]
Lodging refers to the use of a short-term dwelling, usually by renting the living space or sometimes through some other arrangement. People who travel and stay away from home for more than a day need lodging for sleep, rest, food, safety, shelter from cold temperatures or rain, storage of luggage and access to common household functions. Lodging is a form of the sharing economy.
Shankill is an outlying suburb of Dublin, Ireland, on the southeast of County Dublin, close to the border with County Wicklow. It is in the local government area of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown and had a population of 14,257 as of the 2016 census. It runs from the coast, between Loughlinstown and Bray, inland towards the foothills of the Dublin Mountains. Shankill borders Rathmichael, as well as Loughlinstown, Killiney, Ballybrack and Bray in County Wicklow. It is part of the civil parish of Rathmichael and contains the formerly separate district of Shanganagh, and in its southern parts, the locality of Crinken.
The Irish Georgian Society is an architectural heritage and preservation organisation which promotes and aims to encourage an interest in the conservation of distinguished examples of architecture and the allied arts of all periods across Ireland, and records and publishes relevant material. The aims of this membership organisation are pursued by documenting, education, fundraising, grant issuance, planning process participation, lobbying, and member activities; in its first decades, it also conducted considerable hands-on restoration activities.
Henrietta Street is a Dublin street, to the north of Bolton Street on the north side of the city, first laid out and developed by Luke Gardiner during the 1720s. A very wide street relative to streets in other 18th-century cities, it includes a number of very large red-brick city palaces of Georgian design.
Clonmany is a village and civil parish in north-west Inishowen, in County Donegal, Ireland. The Urris valley to the west of Clonmany village was the last outpost of the Irish language in Inishowen. In the 19th century, the area was an important location for poitín distillation. Outside the village, there are a number of notable townlands, including Kinnea (Rockstown), Crossconnell, Dunaff, and Leenan.
An Taisce – The National Trust for Ireland, established on a provisional basis in September 1946, and incorporated as a company based on an “association not for profit” in June 1948, is a charitable non-governmental organisation (NGO) active in the areas of the environment and built heritage in the Republic of Ireland. It considers itself the oldest environmental and non-governmental organisation in the country, and is somewhat similar to the National Trust of England, Wales and Northern Ireland but based more directly on the National Trust for Scotland. Its first president was the prominent naturalist Robert Lloyd Praeger.
Landlord harassment is the willing creation, by a landlord or their agents, of conditions that are uncomfortable for one or more tenants in order to induce willing abandonment of a rental contract. This is illegal in many jurisdictions, either under general harassment laws or specific protections, as well as under the terms of rental contracts or tenancy agreements.
St Brigid's was a Roman Catholic church located in the Lower Town neighbourhood of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It was built to serve the English-speaking, Catholic population of the area. The church's closing was announced in 2006, and it was sold in 2007 and converted into Saint Brigid's Centre for the Arts, an Irish-Canadian heritage centre.
The Belnord is a condominium building at 225 West 86th Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. The 13-story structure was designed by Hiss and Weekes in the Italian Renaissance Revival style and occupies the full block between Broadway, Amsterdam Avenue, and 86th and 87th Streets. It was built between 1908 and 1909 by a syndicate of investors as a rental apartment building. The Belnord is a New York City designated landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Airbnb, Inc. is an American company operating an online marketplace for short-and-long-term homestays and experiences in various countries and regions. It acts as a broker and charges a commission from each booking. Airbnb was founded in 2008 by Brian Chesky, Nathan Blecharczyk, and Joe Gebbia. It is the most well-known company for short-term housing rentals.
Aldborough House is a large Georgian house in Dublin, Ireland. Built as a private residence by 1795, the original structure included a chapel and a theatre wing.
The Debtors' Prison Dublin is a historic debtors' prison in Dublin’s north inner city, between Halston Street and Green Street. While it is listed on Dublin City Council's Record of Protected Structures, it was also included on the list of 'Top 10 Most-at-Risk' buildings, published by An Taisce in 2021. It is adjacent to Green Street Courthouse.
Michael Smith had the idea for the reward that led to Ireland's Planning Tribunal (1997–2012), was chairman of An Taisce, Ireland's National Trust and largest campaigning environmental NGO (1999–2003), and an activist opposing bad planning and environmental degradation; and is now editor of leftist magazine, Village.
14 Henrietta Street is a museum located on Henrietta Street in Dublin, Ireland. The museum, sometimes referred to as the Tenement Museum, opened in September 2018.
Squatting in the Republic of Ireland is the occupation of unused land or derelict buildings without the permission of the owner. In the 1960s, the Dublin Housing Action Committee highlighted the housing crisis by squatting buildings. From the 1990s onwards there have been occasional political squats in Cork and Dublin such as Grangegorman, the Barricade Inn, the Bolt Hostel, Connolly Barracks, That Social Centre and James Connolly House.
Peter Pearson is an artist, author, historian, and conservationist born in 1955 who was raised around the Dún Laoghaire area.
The Dublin Civic Trust is an architectural conservation and educational organisation founded in 1991 that works to identify, record, preserve and publicise Dublin's architectural heritage. The trust also comments and assists to a lesser extent with other buildings outside of Dublin.
Tailors' Hall is the oldest of two surviving guildhalls in Dublin, Ireland. It is located on Back Lane, off High Street, in the part of the city known as the Liberties. Aside from meetings of its own and many other of the guilds of Dublin, the hall has hosted many social, cultural and educational events. It has been used as a court-house, a barracks, a school, a place of worship and in place of Dublin's City Hall. It was also a meeting place of the United Irishmen, and the site of the Back Lane Parliament. The Tailors' Guild having fully released it by 1873, the building hosted a Christian Mission and later the Legion of Mary. The building having become uninhabitable by the mid-20th century, the Irish Georgian Society launched a restoration campaign in 1966, and it was reopened in 1971. It now holds the headquarters of Ireland's national heritage charity, An Taisce, and can be visited, and rented for events.
The Irish Heritage Trust (IHT) is an architectural and cultural organisation which aims to preserve, maintain and understand notable Irish buildings for the purposes of education, research and recreation. Founded by the Irish state in 2006 as a national heritage property organisation, it was partly modelled on the National Trust in the U.K.
The Revolutionary Housing League (RHL) is an Irish socialist republican housing activist group that was founded in 2022 by the Revolutionary Workers Union (RWU). It has carried out direct action by squatting in empty buildings. The group is affiliated with Anti-Imperialist Action Ireland.
One of the foremost environmental activists in the State has been barred from acting as a director of certain companies for five…
Luke Barnett sued Michael Smith and Ian Lumley in High Court after incident which he alleged left him 'scared'