We are excited by the news that a new radical social centre opened 6th June in Squat City, Grangegorman named the Violet Autonomous Space (after Violet Gibson, the Irish woman who once shot at Mussolini!).

Dublin has quite a long history of social spaces, going back at least to 2004 when the Seomra Spraoi project began, but has been without a dedicated social centre since the Barricade Inn closed last year. These kinds of non-profit, autonomous spaces provide an important and welcome contrast to the kinds provided by the capitalist system (pubs, coffee shops, etc.) where people tend to be unwelcome unless they have money and are willing to spend it, and those using the space generally have no input into how its run or what goes on there.

The Violet will be autonomous, run by the people who use the centre, and completely separate from the rest of the Grangegorman Squat. As a brand new social centre it's likely that it needs lots of things to help realise its potential, but what it needs most of all is people. People to get involved and help out, and people to just hang out there and use it as a social space. To start off, the Violet Autonomous Space will be open Mondays from 6 to 10 pm. Why not drop by and check it out.