Can’t afford Wicklow rents? This man went to live on a boat

Reporter Tom Galvin met a man who came up with a unique way to put a roof over his head amidst Ireland’s crushing housing crisis

JuJu Jay at his boat.

Tom Galvin
© Bray People

He was told by many on the day he bade farewell to Wicklow, one year ago, that he wouldn’t last very long in County Leitrim.

With a mere 15.8 inhabitants per square kilometre, at the last estimate, Leitrim is the most sparsely populated county in Ireland. But square kilometres of land didn’t really matter much to JuJu Jay who, tiring of paying exorbitant rents, was going to live on a boat.