This Crowded House, RTÉ's shrewd series delving into the lives of 20 and 30-something-year-olds living with their parents in Ireland, is back with another season, just as the annual scramble for student accommodation dies down once again.
With a housing crisis fully in swing in Dublin, and with almost 1 in 4 adults over 25 living at home still, the show follows 12 very different Irish families as they cope with adult children returning to the nest and the joys and obstacles that triggers.
Rents continue to soar as short-term leases reign the property market, making it incredibly difficult for any person to put down roots, much less a family. This is only worsened by fewer houses being on the market, making for a cut-throat process where landlords can pick and choose what tenants they want and why.
Faced with either buying further afield or moving back into their family homes to wait the crisis out, many Irish people are undergoing a reversal of family dynamics, something the show picks up on acutely. The show probes into the reality of what happens when the birds come back to the nest when both parent and child have gotten used to their own space and may now share the burden of younger children.
Far from just a property show, This Crowded House offers searing social commentary on what is now considered a lost generation, caught in the mire of a national crisis.
This week, host Brendan Courtney meets with 28-year-old teacher and mum-of-one, Leighann Rooney from Ballyfermot, who returned to the family home two years ago and is keenly feeling the need to leave and secure space for her and her young daughter.
Having spent the past two years sharing a bedroom with her daughter, Leighann is torn between her dreams and her reality, weighed down by logistical problems: her daughter attends creche in Ballyfermot but her work is in Swords. Making this all the worse is the fact that she can't drive, limiting her options even further.
This week we also meet 38-year-old Denise O’Connor, husband Fred and their two children, who are stuck in property limbo after returning home from Africa seven years ago. In that time, they've moved house 6 times, consistently falling foul of Dublin's rental market.
Yo-yo-ing between Denise’s homeplace in Howth, and a friend’s house, they’ve recently secured mortgage approval, and with the help of presenter Brendan Courtney and financial expert Eoin McGee, the couple finally get to see some real options.
- Words by Charlotte Ryan, video by Sínann Fetherston
Watch This Crowded House on RTÉ2 at 9:30pm every Wednesday.
