Remembering Rachel Peavoy - A Victim Of A Profoundly Sick Society
Her name was Rachel Peavoy, and on this day in 2010 she became a victim of a profoundly sick society that puts the needs of working-class communities last.
A 30-year-old mother of two boys, Rachel Peavoy died of hypothermia in her flat in Ballymun, North Dublin on the 11th of January, 2010. Her flat had been left without heating for sometime. Dublin City Council had known for months about the problems in Rachel’s flat, noting a severe dampness issue they blamed on adjacent derelict flats with broken windows causing heat to leak out.
Rachel and her family had written to DCC and her local TD, former Minister for Housing Noel Ahern, hoping to get them to fix the heating in her flat but to no avail, leaving Rachel vulnerable to the freezing Winter of 2009/10.
The Winter of 2009/10 was exceptionally cold, with December 2009 being the coldest in 30 years, reaching -10C in places, and blanketing the country in snow, freezing fog and severe frost. The first 10 days of January were no different, with the month being the coldest experienced in Dublin since 1963.
Rachel used two small heaters, one convection and one halogen, in a desperate attempt to stave off the cold. But this was not enough. The day before she died Rachel called her mother, asking her to mind her sons and that she was turning off her phone because she couldn't sleep. The next morning, after several attempts to contact her were unsuccessful, Rachel’s brother and one of her friends went into her flat. They found Rachel dead in her freezing bedroom.
The paramedics and Gardaí who attended the scene shortly after the discovery of Rachel’s lifeless body said that her flat was ‘freezing’ when they entered it. At the inquest in to Rachel’s death, DCC denied any responsibility for her death, with one DCC worker claiming that heating to Rachel’s flat had not been disconnected, and another claiming that Rachel had left the windows open in her flat, contributing to her death.
The inquest ultimately found DCC free of any blame, declaring that Rachel Peavoy died of ‘misadventure’ due to having “wet hair” and using prescription medication that they argued made her less sensitive to the cold.
The heating in Rachel’s flat complex was eventually repaired in June 2010 - five months after her death.
Just over a year before Rachel’s death the Dublin government sat down with four of the country’s most senior bankers and agreed a momentous state bailout of the banks that would eventually cost the Irish public at least €64 Billion!
The deprivation of this public money from much needed public services, combined with the debt dumped on the shoulders of ordinary citizens, ushered in years of austerity, laying waste to many working-class communities in Ireland and claiming many victims - including Rachel Peavoy.