"We're going on a tour where no tourist goes."

So this past week has been very busy for everyone in the program. Between our traditional history and politics lectures we also have guest speakers come and tell us about their experiences in whatever field they are involved in. This past week we had Fr. Peter McVerry, a Jesuit priest lacoated just down the street from our classroom, Terry Fagan a local historian and community organizer, and Michael McCaughan a journalist who has spent a lot of time in Latin America and is heavily involved in the Corrib Gas controversy in Co. Mayo.

Fr. McVerry is quite an unassuming older man who has done some truly amazing things for the city of Dublin. I had read about him in the book, Killing Rage, an autobiography of a former IRA man, Eamon Collins, and I remembered Eamon writing about what a positive impact McVerry had on the young homeless boys he worked to help and also Eamon himslef. Fr. McVerry said that his life was changed from an academic who was on course to become an educator in the feild of Chemistry to a man driven to help the most marginalized of society. This change occured when Peter began living in a flat with a few other Jesuits in the Summerhill neighborhood of Dublin. He refers to this area as being synonomous with everything that is wrong with Ireland. Fr. McVerry began his work with the homeless and addicted youth of Dublin's innercity by opening up a hostel for homeless boys under the age of 16. His work gradually expanded and eventually he also housed over 16's and opened a stabilization center for pre-detox treatment, a detox center, and a drug free after-care center. Fr. McVerry demonstrated the need for these facilities by telling us about the shortcomings of Irelands drug treatment programs, for example there are 28 beds available at detox centers around the country, but there are 15,000 heroin users. This shows that even when people want to get better, help is usually not available. Fr. McVerry also talked about how the most important thing he can do for society's most marginalized people is make them feel like there is someone who cares about them, and that they have worth and meaning. Fr. McVerry is truly what a Catholic priest should strive to be, acting as a father figure to his community and providing a helping hand to those most in need.

The next person we met was Terry Fagan who gave us a walking tour of the Monto area of Dublin. He started the tour out by saying, "We're going on a tour where no tourist ever goes." He wasn't kidding. Monto appeared like any innercity neighborhood in America, shabby looking public housing, memorial graffit drenching the walls, and a particularly telling example of public sentiment with one patch of graffiti exclaiming "F--- the Garda". I say this displays public sentiment because I'm assuming that if the community found this particularly shocking or offensive, they would have gotten rid of it, instead it stayed on the wall looking weathered and no attempt to cover it up was visible. Monto used to be Europe's largest red light district, and Terry told us stories of vicious madam's and famous patrons such as the Prince of Wales. Terry also pointed out that this was an area where the Legion of Mary was founded in order to empower girls caught up in the world of prostitution. We also heard stories of Michael Collins holding secret meetings with IRA members here during the War of Independence in the 1920's. I think the most powerful part of this tour was when Terry spoke of personal experience in fighting against the drug epidemic in Ireland. When dockworkers in Monto began to lose their jobs to machinery; poverty, hash, and heroin became prevalent in Monto, and claimed the lives of many of its residents. Terry told us how the parents in the community began to fight back against high level drug dealers living among them. They began to drive them out of Monto and onto O'Connell Street in the city center, but the cops drove them back into Monto so as to not make the city look bad. Terry spoke of family members being burried because of overdoses and the deep seeded hatred he felt for the dealers who made this possible. On many occasions there were physical altercations and even shots fired between the dealers and the group of parents fighting against them. He told one story of a march they led to the front of a dealer's house. He said the men led the march with all the women following them, but this soon changed. When they arrived at the house they chanted "out dealer out!" and he did come out; weilding a sword. He ran down his front steps at the demonstrators and the men in the group scurried away. The mothers however stood there, still, daring the man to do something. Terry laughed as he told this story saying how when you bring a child into the world like these mothers had, there was no one who was going to intimidate them from keeping their children safe. He told us how the government was unprepared and not help much in solving the growing drug problem, but he did say that Sinn Fein were the only party who consistently stood by them.
He showed us a memorial that he unveiled a few years ago alongside the President of Ireland that is dedicated to the people who lost their lives from drugs. He said it represents the failure of successive governments to deal with a growing problem, and "It won't be long untill there is one on every corner of every village in Ireland. This is what happenes when a government ignores its working class, this is the result." Terry is a fiery man who has great enthusiasm for his old neighborhood. One can not help but be inspired by people like him.


What's left of a Magdeline Laundry in Monto. These are what the movie The Magdeline Sisters are based on.

Our next guest lecturer was Michael McCaughan who gave us some insight into the controversy we will be studying over the next week in Co. Mayo. He is a journalist and has written a book about the Corrib Gas dispute. I'm going to save this topic for the next entry when we return from Mayo as I will have a better understanding of the situation.