Peter McVerry is a Jesuit priest well known for his work for the homeless in Dublin. His new book A Dose of Reality contains a number of articles he has written over the years for the Redemptorist magazine Reality.
Peter is a native of Newry. His father was a GP there and Peter grew up in fairly comfortable surroundings. However, when he went to live and work in Dublin, he soon became aware of another side of life –large scale poverty and neglect in the inner city. He began to discover that in the southern state there is a two –tier society where the rich are well catered for and the poor are deprived. Not many seemed to care –either in the Church or in the state. So when he was ordained, Peter, along with a few other Jesuit priests like Fr Sweetman and John Sweeney, began working full time with the homeless. They lived in the high rise flats in Ballymun. Many years ago, I spent a few days with them just to see for myself what it was like. I got my eyes opened to real poverty that I did not know existed. I also discovered a few priests who were Good Samaritans.
Peter has written many books about his work with the homeless and the consequences. This poverty and deprivation leads to crime and to many citizens ending up in prison. He has taken part in many TV and radio debates with government ministers challenging them about their dismal record. He pulls no punches when apportioning the blame for this reality. He is a constant critic of the governments and the ministers responsible for allowing this state of affairs to continue. The following is just one story from his new book.
“Unbelievable but true:
Some people deliberately commit a crime in order to go to jail. One young man who had spent 12 months in custody on remand, was given a suspended sentence by the courts. He went to the Homeless Services to get a bed for the night; they told him he needed a birth certificate or other identification before they could help him. But he had no money to get a birth certificate. So he went to the welfare services to get paid, but they told him they couldn’t pay him unless he had a birth certificate. He asked how he was supposed to get a birth certificate with no money. He was told that was his problem. After three weeks living on the streets, with no money, he committed a robbery just to get back into jail where he had a roof over his head, a bed to sleep in and three meals a day.
Who cares that he wanted to go back into jail? No doubt everyone in the homeless and welfare services are decent caring people. But the staff must work the system and the system is uncaring; it just keeps going on and on, round and round; it’s called ‘institutional indifference’”.
This is one of the stories that Peter McVerry includes in his new book A Dose of Reality. I am sure he could have written five hundred stories like this about his experiences in Dublin over the last 40 years. It is no wonder the prisons are full of young people from these deprived backgrounds. There is certainly need for radical change if there is going to be justice and equality in that state –if there is going to be proper investment in the impoverished areas of our cities. That change must come from government. Will it come from a FF/FG government? Doubtful. It is because of this neglect over many years of FF and FG governments that the people have called for radical change. Meanwhile, Peter McVerry and his team in the Peter McVerry Trust do whatever they can to raise awareness and do what they can to provide for the homeless.
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