Wicklow — In a shocking case highlighting the routine abuse tenants face from landlords in Ireland, a property owner has disposed of a vulnerable woman’s possessions before she could retrieve them from her former home. Community Action Tenants Union (CATU), which fights for the rights of those who rent, first drew attention to the matter in a social media post on August 19. They have told the Canary that now, two weeks later, the landlord Damian Flood is yet to return its member Tina’s belongings.
Flood is not the first landlord to mistreat Tina. According to CATU South Wicklow-Wexford organiser Jack Bergin, the previous landlord for the house in Wicklow Town, Cliona Byrne, failed to keep up with basic maintenance of the property. Bergin said:
The property [was] in poor condition from the outset. Bad electrics, drafts, a shower that doesn’t work properly, and a bathroom and kitchen with ongoing water leaks.
Tina requested repairs to roof tiles to prevent water ingress, but Byrne refused. Byrne also accused Tina of “blowing up the electrics”. Byrne also refused to fix this, leaving Tina with only limited electricity in her kitchen.
Wicklow landlord’s “deliberate act of disrespect” to woman as she cared for sick family
Tina’s health began to decline, which certainly wouldn’t have been helped by inadequate housing. Surgeons had to perform major lung surgery on her, in which they removed part of her left lower lung.
Tina pictured (centre)
Even after this, Byrne continued to refuse to carry out essential repairs, despite the drafts and damp caused by the damaged roof tiles. Finally, in 2025, Byrne decided to sell the property and only at that point did she begin carrying out the repairs needed.
By this point the water leakage had become so bad that the property was uninhabitable. Tina moved out, and Byrne changed the locks before Tina had gathered all her belongings. Byrne then sold the property to local businessman Damian Flood, owner of John Flood Menswear shops in Wicklow Town and Arklow.
Flood then prevented access to the property, only to cruelly dispose of the CATU member’s possessions. Bergin told us:
[Flood] bought a property, knew Tina’s belongings were there, and instead of giving her reasonable time to retrieve them, he had them thrown away without a court order while she was in London caring for sick family which appears to be a deliberate act of disrespect.
Flood is also hiding behind his solicitor and refuses to speak to Tina directly. That suggests he knows his position is weak. His solicitor’s demands that Tina obtain liability insurance to access her own belongings were unreasonable and designed to be impossible to meet.
Another solicitor has informed Tina that the insurance requirement has no legal basis. A removals firm called East Coast Grab Hire were responsible for clearing the property. Tina has written to them asking where her belongings currently are, but they have not responded. When she contacted the Gardaí, they told her that they had advised the company not to speak to her.
Rats & black mould: landlords’ routine mistreatment of renters
It’s clear East Coast Grab Hire could have returned Tina’s items, as they handed over the ashes of both her mother and a pet. Clearly someone regarded it as excessive to dispose of those, but taking away all her other possessions should have been viewed as similarly outrageous.
CATU had been attempting to mediate between Flood and Tina for several months, and decided to go public once Flood threw her possessions away. They say the response from the public has been “strong”. Bergin said:
Locally, there is a sense of disbelief that a well-known business owner would treat someone this way. It is a common issue with rural organising in Ireland, as your neighbour could be that business owner…
[Therefore] it is important to really highlight the material differences they have [relative] to you [as someone] who may just be trying to get by. Flood did not have to do this, whereas it cost our member Tina everything.
He went on to describe the litany of cases CATU is intervening in, often successfully. The Cavan and Fermanagh/Monaghan branches recently prevented the eviction of a young family from their home.
Their role is essential, given how frequently heartless landlords subject renters to dire conditions and continually attempt evictions. The tenants union is assisting renters in Hazelwood estate, where Aontacht Media reported there are:
…an array of unaddressed health and safety hazards, including black mould, rat infestations, broken toilets, unserviced boilers, leaks and roof gaps.
The corporate landlord at Hazelwood, Patchflow Ltd, has been seeking to shamefully evict more than 39 households. Bergin flagged:
The CATU Eviction Nation report [which] found 353 officially recorded illegal evictions between 2015 and 2024, plus thousands of ‘legal’ evictions that are just as devastating. But these figures only scratch the surface as many of these evictions never go through the [Residential Tenancies Board] at all.
We recently highlighted how vile landlords are turfing tenants out at rates not seen since the mid 1800s. An RTÉ report suggested that:
…arguably tenants today have less rights and customary advantages than their counterparts in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
However, the case of Tina is a glaring case of the cruelty inherent in how Ireland currently manages housing. The most vulnerable suffer, while what ought to be a basic right is treated as a commodity by a government doing all in its power to enable the dead-eyed landlord class.
Featured image via IrishTimes
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