IT Sligo lecturers and staff were involved in the making of the RTE documentary ‘Ghost Land’ which was broadcast on RTE1 television on Sunday last. The programme was a behind the scenes look at the bursting of the decade-long property bubble which left a swathe of unfinished houses and apartments across the country, and is part of the ‘Aftershock’ season running all this week.
Dr Chris Sparks, Lecturer in Sociology and Politics at IT Sligo, was asked to contribute to the programme on the basis of his recently published essay ‘All that is solid melts in to air: broken hopes and broken houses in Leitrim’ (The essay featured in ‘Ireland of the illusions: A sociological chronicle 2007-2008’ edited by
Dr Perry Share of IT Sligo and Professor Mary Corcoran, NUI, Maynooth).
‘Ghost Land’ is an observational documentary that goes behind the figures to show the reality of life in the aftermath of the building boom, told mainly from the perspective of residents who have mortgaged their future in a ghost estate.
As part of the documentary, a group of Social Studies students from IT Sligo were taken by Dr Chris Sparks and Dr John Pender with the programme producer on a field trip to ghost estates in Leitrim and Longford. Students and lecturers were filmed looking around and asked for their thoughts. Following this, Dr Chris Sparks was interviewed about the ways that commodification of homes as saleable assets had led people into false beliefs about their economic powers, discussing how people lose sight of the value of their houses as homes and features of community living.
For details of ‘Ghost Land’ see http://www.rte.ie/aftershock.