Category: Lectures

Parish of St. John the Apostle – Knocknacarra Novena to Our Lady

Good evening everyone

When I got a phone-call from Fr. Hugh Clifford inviting me to speak at your annual novena, I was very surprised because I am not on the lecture circuit and neither am I a preacher.

This is my first time meeting a congregation like this apart from New Years Day 2000, when the Dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin invited people working on the margins of society to address his congregation.

This novena can be stimulating, energising and challenging, and in some ways this is what we all need to maybe withdraw from our own world, if even for a short time and listen maybe to an outsider. I am acutely aware that this is the first night of your novena, and there is an onus on me to ensure that you leave wanting to come back again.

Let me tell you something about myself…

The recent elections left many dreary of the sound bites and sadly many young educated people decided not to vote. While relying on our vote to make a change we can forget the value of speaking out – why should any of us be put off by language. All of us are important, unique human beings with special gifts and talents. How can we really talk about social issues if we ignore or isolate the inarticulate and the lonely? etc

I have been working on a daily basis for 30 years now with people who are homeless. Homelessness to us is much more than being without a home – a home is not just about four walls. Increasingly, we see so many become homeless who are seen as outsiders in our society.

However, I live with the belief that it is possible for any one of us to feel an Outsider, and equally possible for each of us to ensure that many living in our community feel less an outsider because of our understanding.

TRUST is a voluntary organisation working with people who are homeless – it was founded in 1975.

The philosophy of TRUST is based on two central principles:

• The recognition of every individual’s right to be treated as an autonomous and unique human being.
• The need to restore the dignity of individuals whom society has labelled deviant and undesirable.

Every day up to 40 men and women who are living rough, in Dublin and beyond, avail of the services offered by TRUST. These services range from the provision of washing facilities, and a change of clothes, ensuring that people get their rights and entitlements, to addressing the more complex needs of people without access to even the most basic health determinants. We see the most important part of our work is meeting people like any other human beings and nobody is labelled. Many of the people using the services of TRUST are perceived by the wider society as being different and difficult, and as a consequence are suffering from the effects of major neglect, isolation, untreated health problems exacerbated by lifestyle, even difficulty accessing mainstream services and often times, the most basic accommodation.

Sometimes the only shelter is a Garda station or a prison cell. I am reminded here of Joe, a man in his mid-30’s who called two weeks ago to have a shower & change of clothes en route to court on a minor charge. His parting words going out the door were ‘I hope I go down, at least I’ll have a bed for a while.’

Today we are all constantly bombarded with reports, statistics, strategies, jargon and bad news, and many voices of wisdom are drowned out by the ‘expert’ voice – there are no experts in the field of poverty and exclusion – only those living in poverty, financial or otherwise, or excluded for some other reason. Sometimes it is not possible to pin-point why one is different.

In today’s world it appears that there is an industry developing around poverty as we can clearly see by reading the ads in our National Newspapers – requirements to work in the field so prohibitive that many would never be considered, and many human beings can feel they have nothing to offer. This in itself can be an injustice. While we do know that there is a need for people with training, there should also be a balance, and one supports the other.

I decided in preparing this to just open the Bible at random – probably the most possessed book in the world, and the least read – when I did, the letter from James, which emphasises the importance of actions along with faith, faced me. Many of you here may be able to quote the bible – I am not.
“Warning against Prejudice”

‘My brothers as believers in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory, you must never treat people in different ways according to their outward appearance. Suppose a nice man wearing a gold ring and fine clothes comes to your meeting, and a poor man in ragged clothes also comes. If you show more respect to the well-dressed man and say to him “Have this best seat here” but say to the poor man “stand over there or sit here on the floor by my feet” then you are guilty of creating distinctions among yourselves and of making judgements based on evil motives.’

Reading this reminded me of John – an old man from the city who loved his church and even though living in a hostel where there was an oratory, he visited his local church each morning. One morning he called, crying bitter tears; he said a well-dressed woman snapped at him to wash his hands, he was too dirty in her eyes to shake hands with in offering peace. His hands like the skin on his face were weather-beaten from years of hard manual work outdoors, and nights sometimes spent in skippers because he couldn’t get the money for a hostel, or couldn’t get there before closing hours because of bad feet.

The parish in some ways is a clearly defined geographical area and maybe easier to define than community, but in my eyes, the parish is the community for many, and vice versa, and to put it more simply, almost like a large family and all that that entails, but sometimes the cosiness of parish could all too easily lose sight of the individual. All can be seen as Outsiders – those seen to be in charge versus others and vice versa – much like a family.

Tony, who is totally cut off from his family whose only shelter at times is in a local Garda station came out of prison last Christmas. A large candle being the only Christmas decoration we chose to have, had only been on the table a couple of days and hadn’t been lit for safety reasons. Tony came in on his release, and when we came back to the sitting room where he was waiting for a shower, the candle was lighting and he was sobbing, because the candle reminded him of Christmas and probably happier days in the past.

Today, it is possible to just see the Outsider as someone from another continent and indeed possible to ignore that person equally. We recently ran a National Essay competition to highlight the plight of the Outsider in our society – it was open to Transition year students and the response was so overwhelming, and indeed encouraging to see the depth of thought in the youth of today.

The poster read “Everyone is important! But some people are different. Why are they excluded? Sometimes even assaulted. More often just ignored and isolated, confined to the margins of society the outsiders! Daily we meet people who feel they are outsiders in our world. But everyone is important, regardless of where you live, the colour of your skin, the music you like, the school you go to, your religion and everything that makes you a distinctive individual.”

Outsider

A sheltered arch or where underground
kitchens of an inn sent
Through grids of pavement grating
The warmth of the asses breath –
Where did last night’s Christ lie down?
Every morning for months I watched
A man I might have been
About my age and bearded too,
His face blotched crimson
With cheap wine and sleeping rough
He walked the far side of the street
Always hurrying somewhere;
A father who couldn’t praise, I wondered,
Or what had blurred his star?
For months our eyes never met

Though the street between us was narrow,
Until that eve he crossed
‘Some help,’ he said, but it must have been
my double’s eyes that asked
where would He lie down tomorrow?
An old outsider within me winced,
shook him off and fled;
that street between was so narrow –
I chose the inn and was afraid.
I’m sure I’ve never seen him since –
But tomorrow when carafes go round
A lone presence will pass
Tremors through our frail togetherness;
Again those eyes will ask
Where did last night’s Christ lie down?

‘Outsider’ is from A Fragile City, Micheal O’Siadhail (Bloodaxe Books 1995)

Of course, Jesus was an outsider – he had no job, he chose the fisherman who worked hard to make a living as those to spread his message. Mary Magdalen was his friend, and just look at the people he has encouraged inspired, comforted and challenged – if we believe in him, we must do as he did. Of course today he could be considered mad because of his attire, his long beard and hair could even ensure admission to some of our most basic services would be denied. Because of his lifestyle and vision, he could be seen as a threat – he could well be in danger of imprisonment, incarceration in a psychiatric hospital and could well be medicated to control him. It is possible, that a room may even be denied to him, by strong community groups. Strange how we believe in him and ignore the likeness with today’s outsiders.

The Outsider is simply someone who doesn’t fit into our view of things, our circle, our community, our world, the person who asks the awkward question, the low achiever, these days – maybe even the religious; the list is endless – I suppose only each of us can decide for ourselves – who do we isolate? This alone sounds simple, but how do our views affect the thinking of others – does it help to discriminate further?

Our current emphasis on ‘success’, our definition of success promoted by educational establishments and others, and now part of our requests for grant aid in the very areas needing finance, needs to be questioned by all of us. Who do we consider to be the most successful person in our lives / community? Who makes headlines on our National Newspapers? Certainly not Mary who spent a recent St Patrick’s afternoon banging on the door of Mountjoy prison looking for shelter or the Christmas Season she spent dancing with the dolls and animals on display in Clery’s window – her only companions.

In the field of homelessness, the emphasis on resettlement is in some cases pushing those on the outside well outside the limits. We should never be afraid to speak out on their behalf – bear in mind fear often prevents us siding with someone different but maybe this is the price we pay – not much is it if the end result means a better life for someone else?

A Morning in TRUST: Developing a sense of self-worth:

We encourage and help people who come to us to avail of statutory services and to obtain their entitlements; to place a value on themselves; to develop a sense of self-esteem and avoid dependence on private charity.

We attempt as best we can to meet people as they are, listen and do what we can as fellow human beings – it’s not easy. Sometimes the only hearing people we meet get is when they are being researched – that is why we have grave reservations about the quality and quantity of research taking place currently.

We meet some people who are so cut off from everything around them that they at times appear to be reachless.

Some people we meet are contented with their lives, never complain and leave us feeling grateful for the opportunity to reflect on what life is all about.

It can become all too easy to avoid even calling people ‘people’– they are statistics, figures to be juggled with at endless meetings and conferences. It is of course much easier to deal with figures. People who are homeless are now always referred to as clients – whatever that word means. I am reminded of calling to a much-publicised Health Project recently, and expressed my views on confidentiality. I was told not to worry, only the client number will show up on the screen, and you will be a statistic. Is it so surprising that increasing numbers now feel outsiders, in a world of buzzwords gone mad, – how can justice follow if we ignore the human condition with all it’s complexities?

Quote by Andrew Lang, over 100 years ago. “He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts – for support rather than illumination.”

We can all feel outsiders when we listen to the experts and they are plentiful and increasing. Let me tell you about Jimmy, now dead, who comes to mind now as the World Cup approaches. He was truly an outsider – all of his life, possibly from birth – it was the different, ordinary, and many extraordinary people he met daily who ensured his being an outsider was what made him special and he made so many people feel good about themselves.

Retired Bishop Desmond Williams said in “Not Just a Bed for the Night”, which I co-authored:

‘Can we sit back and feel there is no more to be done? More is needed before we can claim to be living up to the standards of our Gospel as a society and as individuals. ‘The poor you shall always have with you,’ should not lead us to be satisfied with a society that both creates and perpetuates poverty.
What can we do? We can treat people with the dignity that their humanity demands of us. We can support voluntary action and influence public bodies to act decisively in favour of the homeless people. We can pray that parish communities will come to realise that caring for the marginalised is akin to caring for Christ because of the Christ in each person we meet.’

I rather like the notion of maybe seeing ourselves in the other individual – how would we feel, what would or could we feel capable of doing. When you see someone who appears different, maybe they were once as you are now. Fear of difference is often what prevents us from taking that first step, and maybe fear of knowing we could be like that ourselves. Therein lies our responsibility.

Knowing of the services in your locality can be a starting point. Don’t be put off if the person doesn’t respond to your offer of support, your smile or nod perhaps. Likewise it can be easier for us to drop a coin rather than look into the eyes of another human being. Sometimes, they don’t know how to take kindness when their lives are so hard. After all, why should they TRUST us?

Injustices have been highlighted by the action of many, but it takes one voice to sow the seed – that one voice needs to be supported because it takes guts to say something different in today’s world, and even greater strength to live as an Outsider.

I would like to thank the Sisters of Mercy for inviting me to give this years’ Catherine McAuley Lecture. Indeed I am very conscious of the fact that I am following on our President Mary McAleese, Poet Brendan Kennelly and Prison Governor John Lonergan, all well known in public life.

To say I am deeply honoured or humbled to be here sounds a bit clichéd, I would prefer to say that I just happen to be here – like so many other things in life – we never know why or how we end up where we find ourselves but nothing is ever by accident – I really do believe that, and that we must be aware of some sense of mystery and make the time to reflect on the wonder of it all.

I like to think that I am here standing in the very building Catherine McAuley lived and died in only because I happen to be alive and working in the city she worked so hard in at this time in creation and I suppose because of the work I am doing which in many ways is with some of the people so many years ago she ensured were not forgotten about and were cared for. That fact alone has prompted me to pose some questions not only about the time we live in, but rather what would she have thought of it all and what would she have done or more importantly what would she be encouraging us to do now.

Forgive me for taking the liberty in attempting to understand what someone else would have done, however, I feel this is the best I can do in remembering this great woman.

To this end I have read some literature on Catherine and reflected on the work of some of the women known to me who followed her:

• Sr. Aquinas, a relative of my mothers who was matron in St. Patrick’s Hospital, Cashel, Co. Tipperary, where I spent a short time working – I marvelled at her energy and commitment given the limited resources available to her.
• Sr. Calasanctious, who strangely enough I have had a series of amazing contacts with and who just some years ago wrote a marvellous description of the county homes and indeed on her work to date in Longford. She was instrumental in ensuring that two men known to us and homeless in Dublin got their dying wish – that was to return home to live out their last years and die in the county of their birth – Longford.
• A cousin of my mothers formally Sr. John Bosco now Sr. Nora.
• My brother-in-law’s late aunt was a Mercy nun in England – Mother Camillus, whose death was recorded in the Arundel and Brighton Diocesan Magazine in Feb./Mar. 1990 (A + B News):

“At the age of 22 (in 1929) she came to Uckfield (which is in East Sussex) dressed for action and that dress was still unchanged 60 yrs. later. She spent long secret hours in the Convent Chapel. She had spent 60 yrs. working in education at Uckfield, 36 yrs as Head Teacher and was greatly loved by all.”

• Mentioning ancestors I am reminded of some of my mother’s relations who sailed to New Zealand in years gone by some of their descendants were known to Sr. Mary Hanrahan, a fact I only discovered when she contacted me last May and I note that one of Catherine’s first Sisters was a Catherine Leahy.

Your sisters are well aware of your orders work in the field but it was interesting to note that the sisters who went to Uckfield which of course was rural in 1896.

” had been doing work in the slums of South London since 1839 even before the work of The Salvation Army and Dr. Barnardo.

At the time the well known poet Francis Thompson who was living on the streets and rescued wrote an essay “Catholics in darkest London” asking the church to involve itself with the poor who were totally dependent on charity.”

Fr. David Sutcliffe P.P. writing in the St. Michael’s Convent of Mercy Centenary Booklet.

I have often wondered why so many great women took on the names of male saints!!!

I should first describe the work I am involved in myself and how TRUST came to be:

TRUST – Our philosophy:

The philosophy of Trust is based on two central principles:

• The recognition of every individual’s right to be treated as an autonomous and unique human being.
• The need to restore the dignity of individuals whom society has labelled deviant and undesirable.

What does Trust do?

TRUST is a non-political, non-denominational voluntary body set up in 1975 to provide medical and related services for people who are homeless. We work in premises provided at a nominal rent by the Iveagh Trust.

From a letter sent by Dr. Kieran McKeown, Social and Economic Research Consultant after a visit to TRUST:

“I was most impressed by your service. The bright coloured walls and wooden floors were warm and welcoming, and mirrored the bright cheerful staff that welcomed me … I was particularly impressed by the pictures on the wall, which captured the sensitive nature of the people who use your service and speaks of a place where everyone is accepted just as they are. Those pictures tell me that every life is a work of art. I felt I was in a solid, comfortable place and ordinary enough to feel at home”.

Up to 40 men and women call each morning, the majority of whom are sleeping out (aged 18 to 85). We see new people daily and often have people calling who were housed – settled – and become homeless again.

Washing facilities are available and each month we give clothes to approximately 350 people who are homeless (members of the public including Rotary and church groups donate the clothes and shoes). We have a chiropody session once a month and avail of the services of an optician, dentist, and local GPs. We refer people to the relevant health services and help them to avail of them.

Developing a sense of self-worth:

We encourage and help people who come to us to avail of statutory services and to obtain their entitlements; to place a value on themselves; to develop a sense of self-esteem and avoid dependence on private charity. Up to recently, TRUST provided out-reach services to hostels and night-shelters. Much improved though yet still inadequate community care services, and increased funding to voluntary bodies to employ extra staff enabled us to concentrate on our core work and extend our opening hours. We still go out to visit people sleeping out where it is appropriate.

We meet people whose bodies are:

• Ravaged by disease
• Stabbed by knives
• Burned by cigarettes
• Pressure sores from sleeping out in all weathers, sometimes sleeping in urine soaked clothes for weeks
• Infected and untreated minor skin conditions and major skin problems e.g. leg ulcers
• Lice infected heads
• Scabies
• Bodies suffering from malnutrition
• All the medical conditions common to the general public but exacerbated by their living conditions
• Minds and souls dispirited by feelings of despair and inadequacy
• Human beings taken over by addiction to society’s drugs, some even prescribed including alcohol and gambling
• Human beings pushed from service to service – just like figures on a chess board
• Some unable to get relief for minds at breaking point only solution at times a brown envelope of medication
• Some trying to create some sense of normality after years locked away in institutions and others just relocated from one institution to another in the name of progress
• Many who have attempted suicide and some who sadly decided to end it all

We attempt as best we can to meet people as they are, listen and do what we can as fellow human beings – it’s not easy. Sometimes the only hearing people we meet get is when they are being researched – that is why we have grave reservations about the quality and quantity of research taking place currently.

We meet some people who are so cut off from everything around them that they at times appear to be reachless.

Some people we meet are contented with their lives, never complain and leave us feeling grateful for the opportunity to reflect on what is life all about.

TRUST feels that some agencies involved with people who are homeless may not respect everybody’s right to the confidential use and storage of information. Some people who are homeless feel pressurised to take part in research into homelessness in case they may lose their hostel bed or their entitlements. Where TRUST is involved in research, it is only where we believe the research design is sound, ethical and likely to provide useful information.

Advocacy

We see a major part of our work in the field of advocacy and have been intensely involved in prison and psychiatric work since the beginning of TRUST.

• In 1998, I was on the National Crime Forum.
• I chaired the Sentence Review Group up to recently when it was replaced by a Parole Board. (The work of the Parole Board can only be assessed in the future.)
• TRUST was on the Consultative Board of the Homeless Initiative.
• We make submissions in response to requests from government agencies and are involved in relevant research on the issues relating to homelessness.

Education

• TRUST is involved in on-going training of specialist groups.
• We feel in TRUST that attitudinal change is vital – now more than ever before. To this end we run a one-day training day – The Homeless Experience.

This programme aims to raise awareness on the issue of homelessness and to help focus individuals and organisations on their responses and possible interventions.

The programme is aimed at individuals and organisations who want to deepen their understanding of the issues relating to homelessness. Many who come in contact with people who are homeless may have concerns that need to be explored and understood, and this programme provides a forum for this process.

• TRUST National Essay Competition on the theme “Outsider” which was co-sponsored by Dept. of Justice Equality and Law Reform and The Irish Times with prizes presented by the Dublin Rotary Club ran over the last Transition Year, we had a major response and it was so encouraging to read the essays from young people.
Information on this competition and prize-winning essays can be seen on our web site www.trust-ireland.ie.

People: Working in TRUST

I am Director of TRUST and in spite of the title I work very much on the ground. My colleagues are Geraldine, who is a nurse and Patrick who lives locally. Evelyn does our administration two mornings a week. Mary, a nurse in St. Francis’ Hospice works voluntarily and one man who experienced homelessness works daily voluntarily.

For many years I walked past this building a few times a day because I lived and worked just on the other side of the bridge. I did visit the hostel I think, but strange as it may seem knew nothing about the life of Catherine.

This fact alone is interesting because in some way it points to the fact that some remarkable people were pigeon holed, something that still happens and unless you were part of that environment you didn’t discuss it. Another factor I think is that the role of the institution took over with all discussion around running and maintaining that institution rather than looking at the philosophy around it and particularly the philosophy that inspired its foundation.

In today’s world particularly around social issues much could be gained from revisiting the thoughts of the founders particularly in relation to health and social services.

My own non questioning of the history of this place may also have been linked to my own feeling of inequality in the training schools for nurses where those run by the religious charged enormous fees which at times were prohibitive. I should mention at this time that I sadly regret the non involvement of religious in hospitals (as indeed highlighted by The Irish Times 16 August) and indeed the voluntary commitment in the small voluntary hospitals now part of history like Adelaide, Meath, Dr. Steevens etc. not run by the religious but with a truly Christian ethos something we have now lost. The care was superb, wards were clean – even if old and the patient felt he/she was well cared for.

Everyone knew the matron was in charge – indeed there was another side to this world but to my mind the good outweighed the bad and many of us here tonight should perhaps have put more effort into preserving part of these institutions. We have I think thrown out the baby with the bath water. We need only read our national papers to realise above.

This fact was recently referred to by an eminent surgeon in Irish Catholic and The Irish Times Thursday 16 August 200:

“A leading surgeon and founder of Dublin’s Blackrock Clinic has said he fears the caring ethos of hospitals run by Catholic religious orders will die out as the hospitals are sold off for profit.”

“Speaking to The Irish Times yesterday, Mr. Sheehan said religious orders may be “running scared” because they now had so few members remaining in the community. “They seem to feel the solution is to sell off the hospitals, but they are not looking into the possibility of calling in the laity, such as was done in schools like Blackrock College.”

“In these situations, religious orders had established lay boards or management teams and appointed order members to ensure their prevailing ethos of charitable service was maintained, Mr. Sheehan said.”

The poor relation of the big teaching hospitals were the County Homes. The County Homes for those not long enough around did play a major part in this country’s attempt to care for the poor.

The Irish Poor Law System was put into place by the Poor Relief Act of 1838 and still today people I meet remember their parents talk about the workhouse – the paupers of the time lived and generally died in those cold buildings and sometimes the staff caring for them as well – I am sure. We remember at times the Famine and dare I say we tend to glamorise it by way of commemorating it. But the workhouse or poorhouse still bears the stigma of shame.

“It is hard today to visualise what faced the Sisters as they moved into these stricken areas. In every town there was at least one workhouse, crowded to excess, in unbelievable conditions. For example: in Tuam 2759 paupers were crowded into one building; Ballinrobe had enormous workhouses, with over 4000 inmates in each; Castlebar had 2800 wretched people jammed into a building with accommodation for only 840. To all these towns and more, the “walking nuns” went, and worked miracles of cleanliness and order and, above all, of love.

Cardinal Moran, then Archbishop of Sydney, in a sermon delivered in the Cathedral in 1901, gave a vivid eyewitness account of his boyhood recollections of the misery of Irish workhouses. He was preaching to the Sisters of Mercy at the Silver Jubilee Mass for the Reverend Mother M. Clare Dunphy, who led the founding group of Mercy Sisters to Parramatta, Sydney, in the year 1888, from Callan where the Archbishop had spent his boyhood. At the Jubilee celebrations he recalled:

When I first visited the Poor House in Callan forty years ago, in 1861, I was struck with anguish – the terrible conditions of the poor people, huddled together without a single comforting idea, without a single spark of religion to console and comfort. It was raining; there upon the old slate flags in their bare feet, exposed to the rain, stood the old people, shivering with cold – no covering on their heads – their numbers aggravating their misery. All these evils disappeared when the Sisters of Mercy were allowed to enter the Callan work-houses … They came as angels of love to comfort them, especially in their dying moments.”

Above quote from a recently published book by Sr. Mary Carmel Bourke, a member of the Adelaide Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy. Reference is made to Catherine’s answer to the call to mercy in this field and as she so rightly points out that today’s pictures of displaced people around the world is a reminder of what it must have been like for our ancestors.

As I stand here tonight I feel particularly close to Johnnie indeed I think of him regularly – this part of the city was his place. I met him first in Church Street Day Centre when I visited one day, he was a small happy looking man with a twinkle in his eye and a ruddy complexion. He was complaining of a nose problem – that was all, referral was made to a hospital and treatment received. Subsequently our paths crossed again, he was sleeping in a car not far from here. He liked a drink, had no possessions, just carried letters, a few personal belongings or mementos in a small wallet tied with a piece of string I think. He never complained, never used bad language and never looked for anything. The lifestyle and weather took its toll on Johnnie – pains and aches, eventually his heart stopped beating but not before he did a radio interview which was broadcast on the Pat Kenny Radio programme, I would like to compliment media personnel who use their skills to remind us of the society we live in and challenge us to think.

Johnnie lived with his family 5 minutes from here (Mercy Centre, Baggot Street), the house he lived in was knocked to make way for development – the family moved to England, he hated the place, got odd jobs, never settled and returned home , home to Dublin. He kept in touch with his sister a nun and carried her letters in his little wallet. We would never be really honest with her about his living conditions, he didn’t want us to be when he phoned her from time to time.

One day the ambulance was called for him and he ended up in a hospital outside the city centre. From sleeping out, a hospital bed can be a change, noise, other people, endless questions, comments made often from the end of the bed made him feel uncomfortable. Reference was made to St. James’ Hospital he immediately thought of St. Kevin’s, The Poorhouse. When the entourage left his bedside he rushed to the toilet, smoke was seen coming out under the door, staff reprimanded him – he left, walked through the night, back to town. Staff worried they didn’t know what happened – they never heard of St. Kevin’s Hospital and the Poorhouse or the Workhouse was only what films were made of.

We found him in an early house – many of you may not have heard of an early house either – pubs that open very, very early. The cigarettes flickered through the darkness, we couldn’t see in but he could see us as he clutched his glass, cold and shivering. He walked all the way back up Winetavern Street, under the Arch and down Patrick Street too independent to let us get a taxi.

Subsequently he agreed to move into a hostel, he was comfortable and his sister was happy in the knowledge that he was being cared for – he died not too long afterwards. At his grave side was the journalist, Ann Daly (now a documentary film maker who with Ronan Tynan made a documentary on our work “A Fragile City” referred to earlier. It was shown on RTE in 1998 and led to our National Essay Competition this year.)

We were able to give a copy of the tape to his brother who arrived too late to see Johnnie alive, he last saw him in England. In the interview Johnnie spoke of his concern for young people today, those sleeping out with no future. He remembered his Christmas in the family home he had no bitterness.

While I am not a historian or researcher I strongly believe in the need to look at what has gone before us this is not an exercise that should be confined to the world of academia which is at times far removed from the world of the many people needing care, love, attention, a feeling of belonging. Both need to come together if we are to look at human loneliness, despair, and hope.

In our work it often is the deaths of people we have met that challenge us, recently so many people have died on the streets – in the recent past a death on the streets would have made headlines and prompted groups to get together. When Pauline and Danny died in the snow in 1992 it was a major news item – others died later and continue to. An emergency hostel for men was set up by the Taoiseach of the day Albert Reynolds – I remember him telling me once that Sr. Calasantious, who I referred to earlier, was someone whose advice he sought and valued – in fact the Army was called in to run it – have we since become too complacent? Is it now too easy to say it’s all their own fault. Something I have learned from daily contact with people who are homeless is that it is a complex issue, not just about housing, but shelter should be available for all in a land of plenty and human contact when required. A contact now in some cases costing money e.g. counsellors.

It can become all too easy to avoid even calling people ‘people’ especially the poor – they are statistics, figures to be juggled with at endless meetings and conferences. It is of course much easier to deal with figures and of course people who are homeless are now always referred to as clients whatever that word means.

“He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts – for support rather than illumination.”

Quote by Andrew Lang, over 100 years ago.

The work of Catherine McAuley is world wide and multifaceted and I am mindful of the painful experiences of the recent past. I also should say at this point that I have had a lot of contact with people who have lived and indeed worked in the institutions I refer to. Some people we meet have had terrible experiences, some too painful to resurrect, others have experiences of loving care and attention.

The Irish Times 16 July 2001 in a report by Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent regarding compensation/abuse. “An elderly religious wondered why it was the case that the role of religious who managed the institutions was always spoken of in negative terms, while the role of the State and its Agencies who were responsible for the welfare of residents in those institutions was so rarely mentioned”.

History will judge us to be no better, perhaps even worse given the wealth of the nation as the State abdicates its responsibility to care for its children, its poor, its mentally ill and its elderly who all made this nation. Our State in the name of partnership is happy to have young inexperienced personnel taking care of those needing much more and some voluntary bodies forced to accept funding to provide same – is this any different from the position the religious found themselves in the middle of the last century and are now being blamed for the difficulties of the time.

• Hostel much cheaper to run.
• Young people appearing in the Courts and in spite of the best efforts of our judiciary unable to get safe accommodation.
• Prisoners on release having served long sentences sometimes for very serious offences unable to get secure accommodation.
Recently we arranged accommodation for a man who had spent 20 yrs. in prison and could not read or write. Yet massive funding is available for highly published training programmes.
• Elderly people struggling to get appropriate in-patient care.
• Elderly people struggling to live independently.
• Hospital patients on trolleys in draughty corridors.
• Hours standing in dirty waiting areas.
• Over worked staff running the risk of making serious errors of judgment.
• The problems related to drugs and AIDS.
• I don’t have to remind you of families seeking accommodation.
• Carers.
• People involved in prostitution.
• People with mental health problems.
• Young families in Bed/Breakfasts.
• The smell of poverty well known to sisters and others in the past still exists and is growing, something that some working in the field have never experienced.

The list is endless but often the one needing most help is the one we don’t even hear about.

There is nothing new in this but what is alarming is the fact that we are complacent, more and more committees usually influenced by political affiliations produce more and more reports to gather dust. All discussed generally in centres of comfort and wealth with the security of spin doctors and cloaked in a language that is meaningless.

• Who is questioning what is happening?
• Do we support those who ask awkward questions?
• What would Catherine have done or suggest now doing.

What kind of support or acknowledgment do we offer our older sisters? They have worked long and hard developing and running services including health/education, do we ever ask for their point of view? Have they got a decent quality of life? Do we visit or invite them out? Do we allow some of them to shoulder the blame for our country’s ruler’s inability to plan services?

We should never forget that many people in positions of power and others would not have received education or care were it not for the religious.

While reflecting on this I was drawn back to the life of Catherine. Her early childhood no doubt influenced her thinking, her financial poverty, and her freedom to move in areas not to be entered. The people of different religions she had as part of her life, her real belief that things would work out and her ability not to be controlled or subsumed into other religious congregations while learning from and acknowledging each one. She was criticised but carried on, she stood her ground. She made people feel uncomfortable.

Catherine tried to make the world a better place. This year I was invited to the Foroige National Conference by its Director Michael Cleary, who I understand has a sister in this order and I am sure he had a part to play in my being here. Foroige to my mind is one of our greatest national organisations and I am happy to say that its forerunner Macra na Tuaithe had a major role to play in my own education and philosophy of life. I would like to quote from the brochure of this organisation re Citizenship and I am sure Foroige will allow me to. One Catherine would no doubt support and encourage.

“To be a citizen of one’s country is to enjoy certain rights and accept certain duties. Some of these rights and duties are enshrined in law.

But citizenship is more than legal rights and duties. It is about a people joined by a common spirit, respecting its different traditions and working together for the good of all. Good citizens take responsibility for the quality of life in their community. They are committed to the well being of individuals and to the development of the community as a whole. They promote caring and respect for other people particularly those in need.

Citizenship is also about creating what ought to be rather than adapting to what is. The present world with its justice and injustice, its love and its lack of love, its strengths and its weaknesses is what people have made it. The future world is not predetermined. The essential task of citizenship is not to predict the future, it is to create it.

Each citizen can help shape the future especially through common endeavour with others, through participating in groups and organisations that work to achieve the common good. The place to start building a better nation, a better Europe, a better world is the local community. The time to start is now.”

With a history based on a strong foundation based on practical work, work we hear of today as if it’s new. Visiting Death Row, working in the Crimea, educating poor.

“She soon realized that the social problems of the poor could not be solved by individual almsgiving. They needed organised effort to aid and uplift them, hostels, schools, orphanages, and employment agencies, sale-of-work depots. Above all they needed to be given skills and power to help themselves to be given dignity and a belief in their own self worth to lift themselves out of their penury and idleness and servitude.”

From “A woman sings of mercy” by Sr. Mary Carmel Bourke.

Catherine, a woman founding a religious order with such a rounded philosophy and a strong emphasis placed on caring for one another in the community and yet acknowledging the difficulty of living together under one roof.

Today we single out some women of her age who stand-alone and dismiss many others. She in her fifties started a foundation that is now worldwide. Today many women of her age especially in area of health care are dare I say trampled on and afraid to speak out. Something she didn’t have which we now can use or abuse i.e. extreme wealth, technology including media and mass communications.

How are we using these – a question we as a nation need to address.

Is money too easily available today which can at times prevent us from posing questions:

• Groups building empires far removed from people.
• What value is placed on works of mercy where our newfound language and techniques of measuring success are flawed?
• Buzzwords like performance indicators, benchmarking, partnerships have never been teased out. Do they help us too to ignore the real issues?
• The human conditions of pain, loneliness, isolation, despair, hope, and have almost disappeared from the numerous glossy reports on our national performance even in some sections of the voluntary movement.
• Without the media we may never hear of some of the real injustices but we also need a more investigative and objective media.
• The numbers of particularly male suicides.
• The work of small agencies working with the poor and many who seriously question partnership and NAPS proposals.
• The numbers of people suffering real despair in a climate in which we pathologise poverty .
• The cost of paying for a listening ear.
• The partnership between Unions (representing the work force and depending on it for good incomes) and Planners/Managers who may not be adequately representing the dissenting voice and then the messenger becomes the problem rather than the visionary.

When Catherine in her instructions said:

“There are things the poor prize more highly than gold, though they cost the donor nothing. Among these are the kind word, the gentle compassionate look and the patient hearing of their sorrows”.

I suggest that in this age of on the one hand extreme wealth but extreme poverty of spirit or meaning, our nation could benefit from reflecting on above and perhaps substituting the word poor with people. Rome wasn’t built in a day, neither was your Order of Mercy which is currently like many groups, going through change which is all part of growth.

There are times when it is necessary to stop instead of trying to solve all problems and what better way to stop than by looking again at the thoughts of your foundress.

The words of T.S. Elliot written in the 1930’s come to mind:

“Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge, where is the knowledge we have lost in information.”

I feel Catherine is here with us in spirit and I thank her for the opportunity she has given me and others to look at where we stand at this time in creation and in a country of great wealth but which has serious pockets of loneliness, poverty, isolation, pain, violence, despair and pockets of untapped unnamed human resources – cloaked in the new found language of consumerism and management and ultimately lost to our country and our world.

Alice Leahy – Director & Co-Founder of TRUST
Dunamaise Theatre, Portlaoise, Co. Laois
5/6 October 2001

Good evening everyone. I am delighted to be here this evening remembering the life of John Keegan.

Portlaoise was always a great landmark on my way home to Tipperary – at least we were half way there when we arrived.

While my topic is “Is Home where the Hearth is?” I have decided to link my experience today with dare I say John Keegan. I do believe strongly that our writers challenge us and remind us that the human condition is complex and doesn’t change in spite of so called progress.

Let me assure you I am not on the lecture circuit but it so happens that this year I was asked to give the Catherine McAuley lecture – (next week in fact)- she of course was the founder of the Mercy Order and on our soon to become extinct £5 note like so many other things these days as we live in a disposable society. The clear link between John Keegan and Catherine and the work I do is no coincidence. Her sisters worked night and day in the work houses and John died in the cholera sheds of the poor house.

I have a special interest in the poor houses where people lived and died because even today I meet people where the word poor houses brings tears to the eye and a shiver to the spine. Sadly many professionals in area of health and social care don’t even know of their existence.

I met Tony Delaney through my prison work earlier this year and the name John Keegan didn’t sound familiar, but when he mentioned poor “Pinch” and Caoch O’Leary, of course my childhood came flooding back. My grandmother who spent some time working in America before she had to return due to illness used to recite it to us as she sat doing her crochet on a wooden furm which is still at home – looking out at Slievenamon, and my mother who is the only remaining founder member of the first branch of Country Markets who incidentally this very morning will have been up at 6.30 a.m. with her homemade bread, beetroot, geraniums etc. ready for the weekly market in Fethard – won a prize for reciting it in the National School. (She also listens to Donncha on Saturday nights).

I should perhaps describe a little of our work.

TRUST – Our philosophy:

The philosophy of Trust is based on two central principles:

The recognition of every individual’s right to be treated as an autonomous and unique human being.

The need to restore the dignity of individuals whom society has labelled deviant and undesirable.

What does Trust do?

TRUST is a non-political, non-denominational voluntary body set up in 1975 to provide medical and related services for people who are homeless. We work in premises provided at a nominal rent by the Iveagh Trust.

From a letter sent by Dr. Kieran McKeown, Social and Economic Research Consultant after a visit to TRUST:

“I was most impressed by your service. The bright coloured walls and wooden floors were warm and welcoming, and mirrored the bright cheerful staff that welcomed me … I was particularly impressed by the pictures on the wall, which captured the sensitive nature of the people who use your service and speaks of a place where everyone is accepted just as they are. Those pictures tell me that every life is a work of art. I felt I was in a solid, comfortable place and ordinary enough to feel at home”.

Up to 40 men and women call each morning, the majority of whom are sleeping out (aged 18 to 85). We see new people daily and often have people calling who were housed – settled – and become homeless again.

Washing facilities are available and each month we give clothes to approximately 350 people who are homeless (members of the public including Rotary and church groups donate the clothes and shoes). We have a chiropody session once a month and avail of the services of an optician, dentist, and local GPs. We refer people to the relevant health services and help them to avail of them.

Developing a sense of self-worth:

We encourage and help people who come to us to avail of statutory services and to obtain their entitlements; to place a value on themselves; to develop a sense of self-esteem and avoid dependence on private charity. Up to recently, TRUST provided out-reach services to hostels and night-shelters. Much improved though yet still inadequate community care services, and increased funding to voluntary bodies to employ extra staff enabled us to concentrate on our core work and extend our opening hours. We still go out to visit people sleeping out where it is appropriate.

We meet people whose bodies are:

• Ravaged by disease
• Stabbed by knives
• Burned by cigarettes
• Pressure sores from sleeping out in all weathers, sometimes sleeping in urine soaked clothes for weeks
• Infected and untreated minor skin conditions and major skin problems e.g. leg ulcers
• Lice infected heads
• Scabies
• Bodies suffering from malnutrition
• All the medical conditions common to the general public but exacerbated by their living conditions
• Minds and souls dispirited by feelings of despair and inadequacy
• Human beings taken over by addiction to society’s drugs, some even prescribed including alcohol and gambling
• Human beings pushed from service to service – just like figures on a chess board
• Some unable to get relief for minds at breaking point only solution at times brown envelopes of medication
• Some trying to create some sense of normality after years locked away in institutions and others just relocated from one institution to another in the name of progress
• Many who have attempted suicide and some who sadly decided to end it all

We attempt as best we can to meet people as they are, listen and do what we can as fellow human beings – it’s not easy. Sometimes the only hearing people we meet get, is when they are being researched that is why we have grave reservations about the quality and quantity of research taking place currently.

We meet some people who are so cut off from everything around them that they at times appear to be reachless.

Some people we meet are contented with their lives, never complain and leave us feeling grateful for the opportunity to reflect on what is life all about.

TRUST feels that some agencies involved with people who are homeless may not respect everybody’s right to the confidential use and storage of information. Some people who are homeless feel pressurised to take part in research into homelessness in case they may lose their hostel bed or their entitlements. Where TRUST is involved in research, it is only where we believe the research design is sound, ethical and likely to provide useful information.

Advocacy

We see a major part of our work in the field of advocacy and have been intensely involved in prison and psychiatric work since the beginning of TRUST.
In 1998, I was on the National Crime Forum.

I chaired the Sentence Review Group up to recently when it was replaced by a Parole Board. (The work of the Parole Board can only be assessed in the future.)

TRUST was on the Consultative Board of the Homeless Initiative.

We make submissions in response to requests from government agencies and are involved in relevant research on the issues relating to homelessness.

Education

TRUST is involved in on-going training of specialist groups.

We feel in TRUST that attitudal change is vital now more than ever before. To this end we run a one day training day – The Homeless Experience.

This programme aims to raise awareness on the issue of homelessness and to help focus individuals and organisations on their responses and possible interventions.
The programme is aimed at individuals and organisations who want to deepen their understanding of the issues relating to homelessness. Many who come in contact with people who are homeless may have concerns that need to be explored and understood, and this programme provides a forum for this process.

TRUST National Essay Competition on the theme “Outsider” which was co-sponsored by Dept. of Justice Equality and Law Reform and The Irish Times with prizes presented by the Dublin Rotary Club ran over the last Transition Year, we had a major response and it was so encouraging to read the essays from young people.

Information on this competition and prize-winning essays can be seen on our web site www.trust-ireland.ie.

After our competition I got a story in the post from a young Limerick girl writing about an old man and his dog and one of our runner-ups wrote about a homeless man addicted to heroin and his love for a horse. I wonder if they listened to grandparents reciting Caoch the Piper?

We meet people who are homeless today whose only friend is their dog, one man who died in the early days of TRUST refused treatment of any kind until his dog died. I have vivid memories of Doris a member of The Legion of Mary getting shelter for a woman who slept in a shed with her cat (sadly the womansubsequently died in a fire in her flat). Doris now also passed on, travelled miles with the cat in a basket on the back of her bicycle and later arranged visits to the cat’s foster home. More recently just 3 weeks ago, Gerry, my colleague rescued a kitten (now called Fizz) from the bag of a homeless man.

While I have no recollection of seeing a piper in TRUST we have had people calling playing tin whistles and some younger people with guitars. At one stage we even purchased an accordian for a young homeless man who was raised in care and is currently living happily in the west. I do hope his music has improved !!

Listening to Benedict Kiely recite “Caoch the Piper” on his C.D. poses a challenge to all of us in a society where

We undervalue the friendship of dogs and other animals and
Where homeless people with animals can be denied shelter
Older people especially are sometimes not allowed to have animals.

The poem is one I think should be compulsory reading for all students of Social Policy and those working with fragile people. Certainly for me it is as relevant today 150 years since it was written.

People: Working in TRUST

I am Director of TRUST and in spite of the title I work very much on the ground. My colleagues are Geraldine, who is a nurse and Patrick who lives locally. Evelyn does our administration two mornings a week. Mary, a nurse in St. Francis’ Hospice works voluntarily and one man who experienced homelessness works daily voluntarily.

The most important part of our work is accepting people as they are we refuse to use labels like client, down and out etc. and you will realise that causes problems for decision makers etc. We are also conscious of the fact that research is the answer to everything these days and I use every opportunity I get to question research by now quoting John Keegan. We could benefit from his insight.

” ‘God save you, friend,’ I said, as the venerable-looking stranger stood crossing his naked brow, – for he had taken off his old tattered hat on reaching the chapel door. He appeared much startled at so unexpectedly hearing the tones of a human voice, but, quickly mastering his emotion, answered, ‘Good night, and God save you kindly.’

‘In God’s name,’ I resumed, ‘who are you, and why do you wander abroad at such an hour, the companion of spectres and roamers of the night?’

‘Pardon me, good friend,’ he replied, ‘if I decline answering your questions, I am not about to intrude on your privacy. To none on earth am I indebted, and to none on earth will I reveal the motives by which I am influenced in leading a life of toil, and wandering, and mortification.’”

Quote from “John Keegan Selected Works, TheDihreoch’s Legacy” edited by Tony Delaney.

I still say I am going home when I go to Tipperary, equally I go home to Rathmines from work and in a way I think we rarely stop to ask ourselves where home is? The people I meet daily are labelled homeless by service providers, politicians etc. but most have created a home for themselves in sometimes the unlikeliest of places. Structurally the home may be a hostel, a car, a skipper which can be anything sometimes like the cabby houses or dens (imaginary house) some of us invented in our youth. But home is more than physical structures. Recently a man who had spent 20 years in prison – now in his mid-sixties – raised in an orphanage and spent his earlier life sleeping in outhouses of farms where he worked, came to us crying, the saddest day in his life he said when he left prison. It was home to him, he said, the staff were kind he made friends, he had nice food, a clean bed and the recently retired Governor let him work in the garden. A prison officer who befriended him visited him in the hostel where he found accommodation and that officer was the nearest to family he had in the early days of settling in. He now refers to the hostel as his home, sadly it is possible that pressure will be put on him to resettle in the name of progress i.e. move to a flat (home in most peoples eyes) by social services not the hostel staff and he because of his history of institutionalisation may feel he must agree to move on to end up as isolated as he was in his young adult life.

I decided I would visit Glasnevin some time ago particularly to visit John Keegan’s grave and to make the physical connection between it and the grave of Johnnie and the millennium plot often referred to as the Paupers Plot (terrible name).

As I stand here tonight I feel particularly close to Johnnie – indeed I think of him regularly. I met him first in Church Street Day Centre, when I visited one day – he was a small happy looking man with a twinkle in his eye and a ruddy complexion. He was complaining of a nose problem – that was all, referral was made to a hospital, and treatment received. Subsequently our paths crossed again, he was sleeping in a car in the city.

He liked a drink, had no possessions, just carried letters, a few personal belongings or mementos in a small wallet tied with a piece of string. He never complained, never used bad language and never looked for anything. The lifestyle and weather took its toll on Johnnie. Pains and aches, and eventually his heart stopped beating but not before he did a radio interview which was broadcast on the Pat Kenny Radio programme. I would like to compliment media personnel who use their skills to remind us of the society we live in and challenge us to think.

He lived with his family 10 minutes from The Dail, the house he lived in was knocked to make way for development – the family moved to England, he hated the place, got odd jobs, never settled and returned home, home to Dublin. He kept in touch with his sister – a nun – and carried her letters in his little wallet. We would never be really honest with her about his living conditions – he didn’t want us to be – when he phoned her from time to time.

One day the ambulance was called for him and he ended up in a hospital outside the city centre. From sleeping out, a hospital bed can be a change, noise, other people, endless questions, comments made often from the end of the bed made him feel uncomfortable. Reference was made to St. James’ Hospital he immediately thought of St. Kevin’s, The Poorhouse. When the entourage left his bed side he rushed to the toilet, smoke was seen coming out under the door, staff reprimanded him – he left, walked through the night, back to town. Staff worried they didn’t know what happened – they never heard of St. Kevin’s Hospital and the Poorhouse or the Workhouse was only what films were made of.

We found him in an early house – many of you will have heard of an early house – pubs that open very, very early. The cigarettes flickered through the darkness, we couldn’t see in but he could see us as he clutched his glass, cold and shivering. He walked all the way, back up Winetavern Street, under the Arch and down Patrick Street too independent to let us get a taxi.

Subsequently he agreed to move into a hostel, he was comfortable and his sister was happy in the knowledge that he was being cared for – he died not too long afterwards. At his grave-side was the journalist, Ann Daly (now a documentary film maker who with Ronan Tynan made a documentary on our work “A Fragile City” referred to earlier. It was shown on RTE in 1998 and led to our National Essay Competition this year.)

We were able to give a copy of the tape to his brother who arrived too late to see Johnnie alive, he last saw him in England. In the interview Johnnie spoke of his concern for young people today, those sleeping out with no future. He remembered his Christmas in the family home he had no bitterness.

Many of you will remember Danny and Pauline who were found dead in the snow 1992. I still find the radio interview I did with John Egan for the Pat Kenny Programme moving, the bleakness of the place just off The Quays not far from the Croppy’s Acre facing Collins Barracks and to think that any one of us could end up like them if our lives were different, a fact Joan Baez reminds us of in “There but for fortune”, their companionship, the warmth of the bottle and human companionship and the different elements that make our house a home come to mind when I play the tape.

Re Mareese

Mareese slept for many years in a box near the Dail. Some politicians and others failed to understand why new clothes etc. left for her were untouched. People especially staff in Anne St. Post Office, Bewley’s, Clarendon St. Church and Gardai on duty were good to her. The Eastern Health Board gave her an allowance which was subsequently queried because she didn’t spend it – a friend of mine visiting Clarendon St. Church introduced herself, Mareese excused herself to put her kettle behind the side alter. Home to her was when the weather got bad moving into a broken down car in Kevin St. Garda Station for a night or two. New Gardai on the scene were always fearful something would happen and they would be blamed however thankfully there was always an older wiser Garda around who knew the City and its people well – here I should acknowledge the contribution made by the Gardai in ensuring outsiders have a place in our world. One day as I rushed home to get oil in I met her with her box – two women with different notions of home. Last time I met her she was sleeping in her box in London. Had Dublin become too difficult a place to live in?

It comes as a surprise or shock to many to discover family members homeless – some people manage to hide it from family and neighbours. Sometimes at Christmas people come to us for a suit of clothes to go back home, some give fictitious names and places of abode when in hospital or participating in research.

It is easy to understand this at times – people leave the family abode for various reasons. Some leave to work, get experience, see the world, create their own world. Others leave for less identifiable reasons.

Home is not always as cosy as the Christmas Card presents. Small towns how ever nice they appear can be stifling. The valley of the squinting windows still exists. A visit to a psychiatric hospital or prison can still lead to stigma. Irregular relationships may cause gossip.

• Pressure to achieve better things.
• Pressure to carry on the family tradition, professional or otherwise.
• Pressure to marry or not to marry.
• Addictions.
• Bereavement.
• Loneliness and isolation.
• Just feeling different.
• And of course the land maybe left to a sibling who marries.
• Some people can feel trapped.

Then again I think John B. Keane’s play “The Year of the Hiker” was one of the plays I saw that could have been straight from our work or indeed Gorky’s Play “The Lower Depths” written a century ago reminded me of those we meet daily.

A few years ago the death of a man we know highlighted how seemingly easy it could be to re-create a life and a home.

Jim was a tradesman from rural Ireland who left his wife and family for reasons best known to himself many years ago. He assumed a different name and lived in a flat until he had an industrial accident. After a spell in hospital he moved into a city hostel.
A very proud and secretive man he nevertheless used his skills to do maintenance work in the hostel where he lived. Family members tried to track him down without success and finally accepted that he was buried in a pauper’s grave in England.

A very intelligent, well-groomed man, he lived with his secret until near the end. He kept in contact with his G.P. and TRUST. When he was struck down by a serious illness his family was located and contacted. They expressed relief at having found him, but also sadness for all the years missed. Unknown to them he had kept in touch with the area by reading the local newspaper in a local hostelry, a fact they discovered after his death.
TRUST and the hostel Superintendent were able in some small way to help the family by telling them how he had spent his days.

Recent publicity about people in U.K. from Ireland highlighted in a way people who come home to die or live out the remainder of their lives in a place they once called home. Sadly many return to a changed land and changed people and unreal expectations.

We were going through some data at work recently, going through 300 – 400 names from the early eighties all male 150 approximately of those had returned from U.K. all penniless and with no accommodation arranged. There were various reasons for returning:

• Many had spent from a few years to 30 years in the services – army or navy. Some had returned without pensions being sorted out.
• One man poignantly returned for a holiday and got drunk the night he was to go back to U.K. missed the boat, spent the rest of his money and slept out.
• One man who was committed to a psychiatric hospital by his wife, escaped, went to U.K. and returned many years later.
• Many had spent years working hard on the buildings.
• A number ended up in hostels, lonely, drank to blot out the pain, they then became part of the homeless population and statistics in some report gathering dust somewhere.
• Some slept out, ended up in prison or psychiatric hospital and managed to keep this from their families.

We should remember that there were no mobile phones in those days and indeed land lines were not that plentiful either.

Many people then and now couldn’t read or write – I should note the letter writing of people in the past was a treasure.
We had only made scant references to why people left and returned. We feel we have no right to pry, John Keegan’s letters dated January 1846 said it all.

I quote some sentences from that letter which could be written today even about some people who have just moved to the city and sleeping under a tree or drinking a bottle by the Dodder or Canal brings memories flooding back.

“If there be one trait, one feature more prominently characteristic of the Irishman than another, it will be found in his undying love of home”

“his thoughts are straying in the green valleys of father-land, and his toils are lightened, and his heart bounds gladly at the hope that his exile is but temporary, that he will again embrace the friends and play-mates of his childhood,”

“He may be comfortable, nay, in the enjoyment of respect and even in affluence; his pathway through this world may be free from perils and privations, yet he is not happy: he is not at home; he misses the bland smiles of his sisters, and the hearty honest laughter of his brothers. The friendship of the stranger is equivocal, and perhaps transient:”

“as he remembers his summer evening rambles in that solitary green boreen”

“I had, too, been from home some months; and all minor feelings were merged in the joy I felt in again seeing Ireland, and the idea of being, in a few days, a welcome guest in my beloved native village.”

The amazing thing about John Keegan’s writing was his ability to make me certainly feel I was there with him walking the fields and so much of what he said is so relevant today.

His eloquent language said so much to the reader and his stories carried a message – it is thought he ended up his days in journalism and how we could do with someone like him today.

“In so far as he receives any mention to-day, the term ‘peasant poet’ is generally employed with reference to John Keegan. This refers, not so much to his own origins, as to the subject matter of his prose and poems. This image of himself as a writer at one with the plain people, is one which he himself actively encouraged.”

“Keegan, of course, is as much a product of his times as he is of his own personal circumstances. The interest in peasant life and culture was not confined to C. Laois, but was part of the Romantic movement of the second half of the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth. The championing of rural life and the literature of the common man, which in turn prompted investigations of folklore and vernacular literatures”

“Keegan was also, in his own way, a political writer, contributing many items to ‘ The Nation’”

From The Introduction to John Keegan Selected Works – Edited by Tony Delaney.
I would like to remember Jim Quigley of Muintir na Tire also from Tipperary, who died a few weeks ago – he never allowed anyone to forget people from rural Ireland “Ar dheis dei go raibh a hanam”.

The stories of so many of the people I meet have never been told much less listened to. Some make the headlines when they die and many end up like Johnnie in a paupers plot. Only recently Joe, a man we knew died, he came from rural Ireland, never married, his brother and sisters had died years before, he worked as a postman for years in England – he maintained his independence, he dressed well, read widely, liked a pint on pension day, followed the county football and hurling teams. He collapsed one morning in the hostel where he was happy, his friends including staff and residents gathered around him and said their goodbyes. Staff in the hospital phoned looking for information later – “They had an NFA brought in” a sad reflection on our society on how we treat one another.

On reading

“We know that innumerable wrongs were perpetrated on the wretched peasantry of Ireland, and we know too that those crying evils were inflicted by those who ought to be the guardians and protectors of the poor.”

Quote from John Keegan Selected Works edited by Tony Delaney – The Dihreoch’s Legacy.

I wonder in spite of increased wealth can we still wonder at the innumerable wrongs or have we really learned anything about mans inhumanity to man.

In a recent book by Fr. James Feehan, a countryman of my own – just up the road as we say. “An Hourglass on the Run”, he referred to the Knights of the Road who have now disappeared. We still meet people who could be classified as such.

Just recently Pat visited his home town on the East Coast when he heard of his mother’s death it took some time to locate him when she passed away. He then rambled again but found sleeping out had become so dangerous, he was mugged while sleeping out not far from his family home, and again before he arrived back to Dublin and the city in spite of what we hear gave him the chance to hide away in a skipper. He in some ways could well be like “The Dihreoch” John Keegan wrote about, I doubt if any one else could describe him with the same feeling.

“’Speak, my poor fellow,’ cried Mr. B. ‘It delights me to be the instrument of your preservation; speak, and let us know who you are, or by what mischance you became an outcast from human shelter on such a dread night as this.’

‘I am a wanderer over the earth these many weary years,’ said the old man in a feeble voice”. …”I strayed from the path-way of righteousness. I erred; grievously erred, – yet I will not shock you by a rehearsal of my iniquities. I was converted; I became repentant, and, for many a long year, I have roamed in pain and privation over my native land, sleeping sometimes in the ash-corners of the peasantry, but more generally under the dews of heaven. My clothing has been the veriest rags I could find, and my food of the coarsest description, and such as merely supported existence. My name or family I never revealed to mortal. They call me “The Dihreoch” – a name which you may call me too, if you think fit but any further disclosures I am not disposed to make.”

Quote from John Keegan Selected Works The Boccough Ruadh edited by Tony Delaney.

In today’s language, he (The Dihreoch) would be a statistic and would be very low on the performance indicator scale. Attempts to reach or understand Pat would be based on a European Model of Best Practice – little discussion would take place about how he challenges us to think about what home is in today’s world.

The deaths of people we work with always make us think and please God it will always be the case. Sadly in recent times many people who have been homeless have died on the streets of our cities – generally these days never mentioned and sometimes if they are it can be insensitively.

I am reminded of a letter I received from an elderly mother of a man from rural Ireland who died on the streets, she never knew he was homeless and she loved him dearly, he loved her too as he often told us particularly when he was fighting T.B.

Our recent spectacular games – Gaelic and soccer remind me of Jimmy. He told me that he was reared by his granny in a large corporation flat complex, long since demolished. He started drinking at 13 years of age and sleeping out shortly afterwards. He remembered when Simon started its Soup Run in Dublin and volunteers visited him in a old car in Smithfield. He was later rescued from the same car one night suffering from pneumonia, by a now high-ranking member of the Gardai. He spent a short spell in the Irish Army and spoke with respect for its members. Life could have been different maybe, as his skills on the soccer field are still remembered. His drinking continued and his efforts to deal with it continued. He never had a room in this own name, even though he spent time in hostels on and off. Spells in Mountjoy (for minor offences) helped him to dry out and build up his strength. He spoke with tenderness of the women in his life.

He regularly visited TRUST from his ‘skipper’ on the south side to have a wash, change his clothes, pick out his favourite pieces from his very limited wardrobe and possessions, which always included after-shave which we held for him. He was generally en-route to Charles Street to collect his weekly allowance. This was always cashed by Iveagh Hostel staff as he could not cope with visiting a bank. He had no identity card and no bank account.

He sometimes needed chiropody and prescribed medication explained to him. He always came with gifts, a football catalogue, a flower, a piece of chocolate for Holly our dog, a medal and a small bottle of Lucozade. The most important gift was his humanity, wisdom, concern for others, past and present – and the challenge he constantly posed, particularly on one of his bad days.

He acknowledged the kindness of the many unknown and known individuals he encountered daily: the man who gave him the Ireland sweater; the ticket for a rugby match he received (his first); a sleeping bag; the nun who prepared ‘lovely scrambled egg for breakfast’; Brother Sebastian, the now retired friend who made toast for him; the prison officer he met one morning in TRUST who was so kind to him in Mountjoy and the well-known soccer player he met by the Dodder who gave him some money, but more importantly spoke to him about the game he loved.

He slept in a skipper for many years in Milltown (the Shamrock Rovers grounds) and subsequently spoke about its loss. He looked forward to the World Cup but like last time would probably watch it sitting on a footpath looking in a TV shop window when I met him. The Christmas before he died was spent in comfort in the Meath Hospital.

I promised him a new pair of glasses (his third) if he stayed in over the festive period. He did, ensuring that we all relaxed knowing that he would not be found sick on the streets. He later moved to convalescence, but left. He couldn’t cope with confinement – some patients, he said, ‘were allowed drink’ – he wasn’t and longed for some.

When Vincent Browne broadcast a programme on homelessness, Jimmy wanted to speak but was too overcome with emotion to even go into the building on the night to tell his story. We still miss his visits. An old brown Rosary beads left behind on his last visit will always be a reminder of a free spirit who will continue to make us ask ‘why?’

He challenged us to think about the place of the outsider in our world. The outsider is not someone we should try to change to live our way, and not someone who is seen as just a burden on the State but a fellow citizen whose place is equally important.

We all think we can read into the lives of people who find themselves homeless and sometimes I think fear prevents us from looking further and I found the description the report of the inquest from the Kilkenny Moderator which led to the composition of The Dying Mother’s Lament by John Keegan so descriptive that it should be rewritten in current text books and the lives and deaths of young people on drugs many on the streets or homeless in their heads would benefit from such a description.

“An inquest was held at Corbet’s-town in this county, on the bodies of four human creatures, found dead in a ditch on the lands of Webb’s-borough. It appeared in evidence, that a poor female with three little children had been wandering for some days through that neighbourhood in a state of extreme destitution. They had received charity at a cabin a couple of days before their melancholy death, – the mother appearing in a state of apparent unconsciousness, evidently the effect of extreme mental anxiety. On the same evening (Friday Nov. 27) they were seen on the road, near the spot where their dead bodies were found on the morning of the following Monday. It is supposed they sat down to shelter themselves from the weather, which on that evening was very severe, and that from exhaustion they were unable to proceed until overtaken by the darkness and loneliness of night. When found, the hand of one of the children and the foot of another were eaten away, it is supposed by dogs or swine. The mother appeared to be about thirty years of age, the eldest child (a girl) about nine. A post mortem examination of the bodies was made by a physician, who was of opinion that they had not partaken of any description of food for twenty hours before death. In the stomach of one of the children, he found some portion of an undigested potato. The bodies were much emaciated, and must have been dead for a considerable time before they were discovered.”

In conclusion I repeat what I said at the beginning I am now more convinced than ever that writing, radio and drama do much to pose questions, stimulate debate.

” It belonged to a once powerful and noble family, and it is the offspring of a pencil which was guided by inspiration.”

Quote from The Dihreoch’s Legacy – edited by Tony Delaney.

We need to be reminded people have gone before us and that we are just a link in a chain joined by mystery and if we could acknowledge that fact there would be fewer people searching for a place in our world.

In the last 3 weeks, two people we know – ANN – a 21 year old mother of 2 children – died in a doorway; and IAN a man in his 30’s drowned in the Dodder.

SANDRA and MARK’s much longed-for baby died – only a few months old. They slept rough in the Phoenix Park for years before we got them B&B accommodation. Their grief is barely imaginable.

It has become fashionable to suggest that the image of homelessness has changed. People who are employed in poorly paid jobs are unable to get private rented accommodation, are ineligible for local authority housing, and book into hostels – taking up beds traditionally used for homeless people.

The image has changed but the reality is even worse.

One night last week, 39 men could not find accommodation through the freefone service – what about the others with no access to phones.

Mothers and children are often given a cheque to go and find accommodation themselves.

Many of the people we meet walk around on blistered bleeding and ulcerated feet. Afraid their shoes will be robbed, they leave them on 24 hours. These same people continue to be referred from agency to agency.

Envelopes of addictive medication and a bed under a tree is generally all that’s on offer for many of the outsiders – people we used to call homeless, who have now been completely marginalized.

But more money is being spent than ever before in the field of poverty.

More highly paid but inexperienced people are employed in the poverty industry – and yes it has become an industry!

More researchers and consultants produce more and more reports to be discussed in centres of luxury far-removed from the smell and pain of poverty.

And more and more workers on the ground are ignored.

Our views are rarely if ever sought, and if sought, as I know from personal experience, only a token reference is made. People who become homeless continue to be treated like fodder for researchers – often trading information for help.

In November 2000, an expensive hostels-on-line service, based on the London model, was launched. It was redundant before it even got off the ground because there were never beds available. And how the people I work with were going to access a computer beggars belief!

Hostels are pressured to accept people likely to be successful – people who fit in and do not have “problems” (problems that in most cases led to many becoming homeless in the first place!) because increasingly grants are dependent on performance indicators.

Performance Indicators, which are defined by people who do not understand or know the people they are talking about.
Emergency accommodation is generally for one night – if available, and after giving their life-story they are referred on to more of the same.

Bed & Breakfast type accommodation is totally unsuitable for long-term accommodation. Facilities often come nowhere near the standards laid down. People who complain are promptly asked to leave because there are many more queuing to get in.

We need resources definitely to solve the growing crisis of homelessness, not least to free up hostel accommodation.

But if we are to really tackle this problem we also need a management revolution in the public service. Management that stifles criticism, does not seek the views of the people in the front line, is doomed to continue to waste resources and not help to end the alienation and exclusion of the people I meet everyday.

ENDS.

BACKGROUND NOTE ON TRUST

TRUST is a non-political, non-denominational voluntary body set up in 1975 to provide medical and related services for people who are homeless. More information about TRUST can be found on our web site: www.trust-ireland.ie