THREE years ago we thought it would be useful to be proactive and get a social centre together . . . to get a sort of public space that anyone could use. Traditional social centres around Europe tend to be squats but it's not really viable to do that in Dublin because the authorities will shut you down pretty quickly. So we rent.

This is our third location. We've literally just got the keys to the new space and we're painting it up. The previous space was used for a kind of Sunday kitchen. Different groups had meetings there. It was also used for cultural events, artwork, "lm screenings and other bits and pieces. The "rst location was in Middle Abbey Street . . . a really small room. The second one was in Lower Ormond Quay and this third one is in Mary's Abbey, Dublin 1, which is a much larger premises and has much more potential. We want to build up more resources . . . internet access, English and literacy classes and things like that. We've proved over the last few years that it's possible. We've moved to bigger and bigger spaces . . . there are more people involved and the range of projects and activities is increasing all the time.

It's totally self-funded. People support the space with standing orders and we put money in ourselves. It's about autonomy. We don't want state funding or grants or anything. We want to show that you can pull these things off without necessarily having to rely on other resources. It's hard to do anything that doesn't make money in Dublin. Without going into a political rant, it's all tied into how we socially imagine ourselves. The idea of people actually working together on a volunteer basis without the transaction of cash doesn't make a lot of sense in people's heads because they're not used to thinking that way. And Dublin has a lot of empty buildings but it's just culturally unacceptable for these buildings to be used for public use because there's neither pro"t nor private gain to be made from it.

That's essentially the crux of the problem . . . commonality within the public sphere is being reduced and the privatisation of land is increasingly encroaching everywhere. One of the aims of the project is to challenge this assumption that spaces need to be privatised before they can be seen as useful. We think common usage is really important. You can certainly see the squeeze on the more mainstream voluntary and community sector at the moment. They're increasingly getting pushed out of the city centre. There are less and less communal services and public services people can actually use. So we want to build up and create our own services that people can actually use. Public spaces are de"nitely being squeezed out in terms of being something that people are able to rent or afford. But even in terms of legal status and people reclaiming private space, there's absolutely no reason why someone should own a property and let it lie there for 30 years when that space could be used.

This project has been running for three years. Hopefully it will inspire other people to do similar things. There are similar spaces in Cork and there have been things like this in Belfast. We want people to get involved and come along and see what it's about. The meetings are public . . . every Thursday night at 7.30pm. It's all about people coming along and seeing what the space is about and maybe it will inspire others to run with their own ideas and run their own thing.