Ghosts of Irish times

Time for another installment from WebUrbanist, this one is Ghost Estates of Ireland: Symbols of an EconomicCollapse

While they look like miniatures, it's a real estate

Built with visions of suburban prosperity in more optimistic times, the empty shells of former dream homes dot the countryside among piles of construction rubble and fallen-down fences. Economic highs and lows have led to abandonments of entire villages all over the world, from China to the Mediterranean, but Ireland is among the nations that was particularly hard-hit.

The ghost estates in Ireland, is well over 10,000 mostly-empty neighbourhoods in a relatively small nation (and just a small percentage of Ireland’s 350,000-some-odd abandoned houses.)

Most of the ghost estates are found in the rural areas of the northern and western parts of the country. These empty shells are eyesores for the locals in these small towns. The crisis is affecting the country – unemployment, debts, budget cuts, capital investments – but it is also shaping its landscape.

Yes, the words 'little boxes on the hillside..all the same' comes to mind

Why did I immediately think of the Clearances of the 19^th century, when many families suffering poverty and the potato famine were evicted from their homes by bailiffs, and watched their buildings being demolished so they couldn’t move back in.

I found it all very evocative, while I love abandonments more than most, at a time of housing shortages and homelessness, can't we place someone in these buildings/towns/cities around the world?