In the midst of a generational housing crisis, walking through any Irish city can feel like an exercise in cognitive dissonance. While thousands of people sleep in insecure accommodation, face skyrocketing rents, or are forced onto the streets, blocks of historic, potentially beautiful buildings stand rotting, covered in corrugated iron and peeling paint.
For years, this decay was treated as an unchangeable reality—an unfortunate, passive background element of Irish urban life. That changed when two systems design thinkers, Jude Sherry and Dr. Frank O'Connor, returned to Ireland from Amsterdam in late 2018. Shocked by the pervasive rot and systemic inaction they observed in Cork, they chose to challenge it head-on.
What began as a daily photographic archive of empty properties grew into #DerelictIreland, one of the most successful grassroots activist movements in modern Irish history. Today, their digital and physical hub, FFUD.art (standing for Fck Fear Uncertainty Doubt*), acts as a critical nexus point where urban exploration, data collection, community engagement, and unsanctioned public art meet to fight for a fairer society.
To understand FFUD, you have to understand Anois, the parent sustainability and circular economy design agency founded by Frank O’Connor and Jude Sherry. "Anois" means now in the Irish language, reflecting a fundamental principle that guides all of their work: immediate action is necessary to address systemic crises.
Frank holds a PhD in ecodesign and has spent decades acting as a worldwide expert and thought leader in systems design, circular economy models, and environmental responsibility. Jude brings immense experience as a designer and analyst specializing in sustainable supply chains, community models, and urban revitalization. Together, they live a minimalist lifestyle and collaborate to view urban spaces through a structural, multi-lifecycle lens.
When they relocated to Cork City in late 2018, buying and restoring a 200-year-old terraced home that had been sitting vacant, they expected a vibrant European city. Instead, they found a historic urban core literally crumbling around its citizens.
Instead of looking away, they spent months walking the streets of Cork, documenting properties that were clearly falling into ruin. In June 2020, during the height of 'Covid-19' lockdowns, they launched their documentation publicly on social media. Frank began publishing a "Daily Dose of Dereliction," systematically identifying empty buildings within a 2-kilometer radius of Cork’s center.
The public response was immediate and intense. While some property owners and institutional gatekeepers reacted defensively, thousands of citizens regularized their own observations. People looked up from their phones, noticed the decay they had been conditioned to accept as "normal," and began asking why. This collective realization quickly crystallized into the national campaign hashtag #DerelictIreland.
The core philosophy underlying FFUD and its projects is rooted in deep structural responsibility, equity, and a refusal to succumb to institutional inertia. "FFUD" explicitly repurposes the corporate and financial acronym FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt)—tactics traditionally deployed to paralyze change, discourage action, and keep the public passive. By throwing a defiant "F*ck" in front of it, Jude and Frank establish a blueprint for bottom-up citizen reclamation.
Their core philosophy is structured around three key concepts:
Dereliction is not an accidental byproduct of a free market; it is an active choice. FFUD highlights that urban decay is a form of visual and societal pollution that rewards wealthy property hoarders through soaring land values and tax breaks, while draining life, safety, and economic potential from local communities.
Anois and FFUD utilize an immersive-dialogic model of urban planning based on a balanced ecosystem: Rest, Play, Work cities should be built to facilitate resting, playing, and working for everyone. When a city center loses its spaces to speculation and physical decay, it loses its social contract.
You cannot solve a systemic emergency with piecemeal regulations. Vacancy and dereliction sit at the tail end of upstream legislative, cultural, and political failures. FFUD treats public art, data collection, and legal research as interconnected levers to shift entire legislative and cultural norms.
The activities hosted and championed through FFUD.art bridge digital scholarship and unsanctioned physical intervention.
Rather than relying on anecdotes, Jude and Frank compiled their daily data into the largest independent studies of urban dereliction ever conducted in Ireland.
The First Report: Published in March 2021, this self-funded research mapped over 340 derelict properties in Cork City. Crucially, the report dismantled the "10 Deadly Myths of Dereliction"—excuses frequently used by local councils and state entities to justify inaction (such as claiming private property rights under the Irish Constitution completely forbid state intervention, or that owners cannot be found).
The Second Report (The Solutions): Debunked five further persistent myths and laid out a concrete, actionable toolbox of structural reforms used successfully in other European countries to eliminate asset hoarding and return properties to public use.
The visual signature of FFUD involves converting the boarded-up, deteriorating facades of derelict buildings into temporary public noticeboards and artistic statements. This unsanctioned street art serves a vital dual purpose: it forces passersby to acknowledge the architectural vandalism of neglect, and it transforms an eyesore into a site of active political education.
Among the primary real-world activations offered directly via FFUD.art are their highly sought-after walking tours. Curated under the banner Walk Talk Chalk, these sessions take small groups through Cork’s historic core.
Far from traditional tourist paths, these excursions are interactive systemic workshops. Participants explore the history of specific vacant structures, discuss the politics of space, evaluate the lack of biodiversity and public luxury, and discuss the realities of the housing crisis. Every tour is dynamic and conversational, shifting based on real-time news and the lived experiences of the audience.
The structural impact of the campaign driven by Frank, Jude, and the wider community has reverberated from local councils all the way to the Dáil (the Irish Parliament). When they began their mapping in 2020, Cork City Council's official Derelict Sites Register listed fewer than 100 properties, masking a reality closer to 700.
Through relentless public visibility and rigorous data collection, FFUD forced a dramatic shift in how state authorities handle their statutory obligations:
Policy Shifts: The campaign directly influenced national discourse, contributing to the introduction of the Vacant Homes Tax (VHT)—a measure the government had previously stated it would not implement.
Expanded Grants: It spurred the development and uptake of renovation schemes like the Croí Cónaithe grant, which helps citizens fund the conversion of old, vacant properties back into homes.
Council Enforcement: Local authorities across Ireland have come under intense pressure to aggressively update their Derelict Sites Registers and enforce the statutory 7% annual levy on owners who hoard crumbling properties.
International Attention: Their work has been profiled globally, including features in the New York Times, RTÉ One, Virgin Media TV, and TG4, moving dereliction from a niche local complaint to a internationally recognized emblem of systemic inequality.
Looking forward, the goal of FFUD.art and its founders remains unwavering: the complete eradication of artificial dereliction across Irish towns, villages, and cities. They continue to call for councils to utilize Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPOs) to buy long-term neglected spaces and transition them into affordable public housing, community hubs, and spaces for creative play.
By merging creative protest, uncompromising data transparency, and grassroots mutual aid, FFUD serves as an enduring reminder that our built environment belongs to the people who inhabit it, walk its streets, and breathe its air—not to the offshore funds or absentee speculators waiting for an empty shell to accrue value in the dark.
