death « Silly Old Twit

Cambridge Court Ringsend Dublin City Council

September 17, 2008

Cambridge Court in Ringsend is a housing complex for senior citizens run by Dublin City Council. I moved in there a few months ago as I was in substandard accommodation in the private sector before that and really had to get out.

Cambridge Court is not unlike a prison. My flat ( a one roomed one ) is more like a cell than anything else. It’s small and dark…..and it does not feel like home…. A man calls around to each flat every morning just to check the we are ‘alright’ ( not dead ). I had to almost have a stand up argument with him to get him to stop pounding on my door… At another time someone from the local health service came knocking and demanding to know all my health and medical history…..it took yet another argument to get rid of her. Yes , there is no question about it , if you live in a place like Cambridge Court ( if you can’t afford to own you own property that is ) you are treated like not so much a senior citizen but more like a second class one. It’s the new racism in Ireland based on class rather than colour or creed.

It may look pleasant enough…….you might think I’m almost ungrateful in my attitude but the harsh reality is that you are treated very much as a second class citizen here. You are subject to a regime that no home owner would tolerate for a minute… They call it sheltered housing but it’s no more than a sort of apartheid…..The whole concept of keeping older people segregated from the rest of the community is very much the norm now. In fact everyone seems to want to live in closed estates with gates and walls..but that of course does not make it right or desirable….

Still….It’s better than being homeless….

PS. One point that I should make here is to mention the noise. You would imagine that a complex such as this would , if nothing else , be quiet but in this you would be wrong. One of the reasons that I gave up my previous flat was that I couldn’t stand the noise but now I find myself in a worse position. It’s impossible to have a lie-in in the morning or to just write a letter or simple things like that as the noise from the next door radio or television is likely to be blaring through the wall….I find myself in the position that I have no choice but to spend hours every day just walking the street…..this is something you should consider if you are offered a flat here. There is a distinct possibility that your quality of life will be nonexistent…….So yes, it’s better than being homeless but that about it…..there is not a lot more that can be said for it.

Posted by sillyoldtwit
Filed in Culture, Ireland, death, discrimination, dublin, life, politics, racism, society
Tags: cambridge court, dublin, dublin city council, ringsend

1 Comment »

Dead Body Dead People

February 17, 2008

                An elderly man in the UK lived for years with the dead body of his lodger on the sofa in his council flat. It seems that the body may have been there for quite a few years. Neighbours had complained about the smell. The man , we are told , has psychiatric problems. It’s possible of course that he just likes having dead people around the house in much the same way as Dennis Nilsen did.
                      In a way it’s funny but sad a the same time. Personally , I’ve never even seen a dead body. I have an irrational fear of dead people , although my mother had a great habit of saying , “It’s not the dead you have to worry about it’s the living”. She would say this for no particular reason , she just liked to say it I suppose. I’ll be a dead person quite soon myself as I’m getting on in years and have a permanent smokers cough and a rather sedentary lifestyle. There will be no one at my funeral as I really don’t know anyone , most of the people I knew are themselves dead. But of course it won’t make any difference to me by then. People die all the time. You could be next . You might be dead within 24 hours of reading this.
         Apart from my fear of the dead I’m also afraid of doctors. I mean I’m afraid of going to see them. I haven’t seen a doctor in over 10 years and worry that I might have cancer or something like that. It seems to be on the news now every day of the week with all the new treatments and all that. But to be honest I really don’t want to know if I have it or not. Oh well , there’s always someone worse off , or so they say. - But to get back to dead people ; you could wake up in the morning with a dead person beside you. A lot of folks must die in their sleep and most will have a husband/wife/partner in the bed beside them. And if your a young person then you can take that smile off your face because plenty of young people die too. It could happen to you tomorrow. Someone might walk into your school and kill the lot of you.