Flats and Cottages: Herbert Simms and the Housing of Dublin’s Working Class, 1932–1948

Eoin Ó Broin & Mal McCann

A fully illustrated exploration of the incredible career and legacy of Herbert Simms, Dublin’s first dedicated housing architect.

Hardback

Description
A city gripped by an ever-worsening housing crisis. An expensive and insecure private rental sector. Rogue landlords running overcrowded and poorly maintained flats. Central and local government struggling to keep up with ever-rising housing needs.

This is not the Dublin of 2025 but that of 1932, the year Herbert Simms was appointed the capital’s first dedicated housing architect. Over the next sixteen years, he spearheaded one of the most ambitious public housing programmes in the history of the state, delivering 17,000 flats and cottages in the inner-city and emerging suburbs.

Clearing some of Dublin’s worst tenements, Simms and his team gave modern homes to generations of working-class Dubliners, transforming not only their lives but the fabric of the city.

In this visually striking book, Eoin Ó Broin and Mal McCann utilise prose, photography, and interviews to tell the story of Herbert Simms’ work during these tumultuous years and give voice to the history and experiences of today’s residents of his buildings. Flats and Cottages also examines the lessons that can be applied to our own contemporary housing crisis to ensure that working people have access to decent and affordable homes.

About the Authors
Eoin Ó Broin is a Sinn Féin TD for Dublin Mid-West and the party’s spokesperson on Housing, Local Government and Heritage. He is the author of six books, three of which were published by Merrion Press: Home: Why public housing is the answer (2019), Defects: Living with the Legacy of the Celtic Tiger (2021) and, with Mal McCann, The Dignity of Everyday Life: Celebrating Michael Scott’s Busáras (2021). He is also currently working on a biography of Derry republican Mary Nelis.

Mal McCann is from Belfast and has worked as a photographer since 1994. He joined The Irish News in 2007 where he is currently the picture editor. He has won a number of regional and national photographic awards including the Northern Ireland Press Photographer of the Year and Regional Press Social Journalist of the Year.