— A Reflection
In 1955 I was born into a newly built public housing estate, Ballyfermot, previously a rural town-land on the edge of Dublin’s city boundaries. Growing up on the estate has left an enduring memory: family, friendship, street play, outings and journeys to nearby places, were all significant in determining my approach to life, and to work, and left a profound impact today on my reflection of ‘community’, particularly as it relates to public housing.
After qualifying as a social worker from Trinity College in 1980, I worked as a social worker for five years in Dublin’s south inner-city, mainly in the public housing flat complex, St Teresa’s Gardens. The estate was the location of Ireland’s earliest clustered experience of heroin use in the late seventies, and subsequently, in 1983, it witnessed the first forced eviction of heroin dealers during a series of anti-drugs movements in Dublin.
It also witnessed the first State-Community Partnership in response to drug problems, the Youth Development Programme (YDP)(1982–1987), in which I was the second of three project leaders.
Most of my practical work, over four decades since the 1980s, as well as my post-graduate studies, research and teaching have been concerned mainly with problem drug issues and the public housing spaces, and places, in which they are usually located. I was an accidental drug worker however, as the issue never featured in my college lectures or practice training, and I never previously expressed interest in the topic. But the issue did find me, and has stayed with me ever since through other roles.
“I was an accidental drug worker however, as the issue never featured in my college lectures or practice training, and I never previously expressed any interest in the topic. But the issue did find me, and has stayed with me ever since through other roles. "
Community and Drugs — A Reflection is written mainly for people who share similar background experiences to mine and for others who study, work and write about drug policies and community work. It is also for those who, like me, entered this terrain from social work or social care perspectives. I am mindful that, historically, social work originated as a practical, and political response to the plight of disaffected and displaced migrant populations — both internal and inward —in late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century western societies, most notably in the social reform and settlement bodies that were established in London, Chicago and New York.
Community and Drugs — A Reflection is roughly divided into three corresponding sections in which first I explore the background ideas about ‘community', with particular references to my engagement with neighbourhood issues while growing up in Ballyfermot, during the 1960s and 1970s, through street play, work, study as well as my own personal interests. The underlying theme of community is present and expanded throughout the book.
Second, I consider my work involvement with drug problems especially in Dublin’s south inner city during the heroin epidemic in the 1980s. Six chapters are concerned exclusively with this period, reflecting its importance in the overall narrative. The discussion also draws from my involvement with different agencies and their responses to these drug problems since then.
Finally, as a reflection, the book draws attention to the need for debate and a radical re-think of drug policies, including alcohol, and the need for greater institutional supports for community services and community development, with a stronger focus on voice, on helping people to have a meaningful say in owning and dealing with personal issues and in overcoming associated problems.
I am preparing various promotional material with a view to circulating later in 2022 / early 2023, with a view to lanching the book in April 2023, which will be the 40th anniversary of taking up my position with the YDP.
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