City Fathers

Rachel Collins and Michelle McFadden look at the work of inner city priests

DUBLIN’S South Inner City is facing a community crisis. The numbers of drug users, unemployed, homeless, refugees and severely impoverished are rising daily. So who is helping those in the area who have such urgent need for help?

Surprisingly, it is not the Government nor local authorities who are leading the way in caring for the community. It is the much maligned and regularly criticised clergy who are once again becoming the saviours of the poor in Dublin City, transforming into a new breed of social workers.

Very Rev Mick Morrissey is the local parish priest, based in Whitefriar Street Church. As well as his everyday parochial duties, he and his parish team have set up the newly refurbished Whitefriar Street Community Centre on Aungier Street. The centre caters for the needs of the surrounding community, offering courses and seminars on key issues such as drug awareness and personal safety.

There is also a non-commercial crèche for young mothers unable to afford childcare. The centre also organises activities aimed at building a stronger sense of community in the area. Although the centre receives a "little funding" from the Eastern Health Board, it relies mostly on voluntary work which is extremely hard to come by.

Another priest making a difference for the community is Very Rev Derek Farrell, a parish priest in Rialto and a member of Fatima Groups United, whose main focus is "making Fatima a better place to live".

Funding for the group comes from FÁS, the Community Employment Project and the Eastern Health Board, but it is still in need of "massive resources", according to Fr Farrell.Initiatives like these have been established by religious orders around the city over the past few years, including Meath St and Francis St. The Merchants Quay Project, run by the Franciscans, acts as a day centre for the homeless and those with family problems and also runs a Methadone programme for drug addicts.

However, its capacity to treat only 15 people at a time has been described as "grossly inadequate" by Ger Rafter of the Project. This, and the fact that they have little cash at their disposal to ease the plight of the city’s poor makes the job all the more difficult.