A new housing grotto in Phibsborough in Dublin’s north inner city is offering people the chance to manifest hope amid never ending despair at the housing crisis. 

With record levels of homelessness and spiralling prices, it is easy to feel helpless about the housing crisis.  

On Moncrieff, artist Alison Byrne said she had installed a grotto locally to help her express her feelings about the current situation. 

“It looks like a Virgin Mary grotto that you might see down the countryside,” she described. 

“There's a grotto piece with the Lady on the Rock statue from Dublin Mouldings - they were very kind to let me use her as my deity.

“Then I built a wooden structure underneath that where people could leave their offerings to the housing gods.” 

Inside the grotto, there is a bottle of wine which symbolises all the times people would like to have a friend over for some. 

There’s a teddy bear to represent those who would like to have a family but can’t. 

There is also a clock which hints at time running out for people. 

“I invite people to bring their own offering to the shrine so that it continuously evolves,” Ms Byrne said.  

“People have left coins like and, obviously, that's representative of needing the money. 

“People have left semi-precious stones, feathers, little acorn bits - maybe representing wanting to live near nature, seashells, that kind of thing. 

“And most predominantly keys.” 

The grotto can also be moved around and Ms Bryne takes it to local festivals, so people can add to it. 

“At Festival Mná, people were writing little notes like their manifestations or wishes and prayers,” she said. 

“They were leaving them at the shrine, so what I did then was I took those notes because I didn't want to lose any of them.

“Some of them were so precious that what people said things like, ‘I found my forever home, hold your faith, it'll happen’

“Or please end homelessness and stuff like that.

“So, I've wallpapered the inside of the grotto with all of those notes from past participants, they've become a permanent part of the shrine.” 

While Ms Byrne acknowledges the grotto is not going to solve the housing crisis, she believes art is an important tool to help people feel better about the challenges they face. 

“You use your own pain to either bring levity or humour or like you shine a spotlight onto the situation,” she said. 

“We all know what's happening, but the more we make things around it, the more pressure the Government's under to do something about it.”

Main image: Happy female friends taking selfie through mobile phone in gym. Picture by: Alamy.com