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AN OIREACHTAS COMMITTEE has been told a young mother from the midlands “would not be dead” if she had been able to access drug treatment in her area.
Represesentatives from homeless services today told the Joint Health Committee that there is an urgent need for the government to recognise the link between homelessness and ill health, and to treat addiction as a health issue.
Dr Austin O’Carroll from Safetynet, a healthcare service for homeless people, gave an example of a young mother from the midlands who came to Dublin to get methadone treatment as it was not available in her local area.
He said she was doing well, but had to stay in a hostel in Dublin whenever she came to get her prescription. One night, she was “violently assaulted” in a hostel and due to the depression she suffered after this attack, she ended up back on the streets.
“She died three weeks later of an overdose,” he said.
If she had got treated down the country she would not be dead.
His colleague Dr Fiona O’Reilly also spoke of people in homelessness who have “died waiting for methadone” treatment.
“It’s unacceptable,” she told the committee.
Aftercare
Service representatives said drug treatment should be available locally and immediately and should be catered to the individual’s specific needs if it is going to work.
Niamh Randall, head of policy and communications for the Simon Communities told the committee that people who are sleeping rough or in emergency accomodation are much more likely to use drugs in unsafe ways and in greater quantities.
She said there is no aftercare housing for people who have successfully completed drug treatment - they are often back in homeless hostels or sleeping rough afterwards.
“It doesn’t make any sense,” she said.
“Nobody should be discharged back into homelessness and this still happens.”
Randall also said it is vital that there are no preconditions to people accessing housing – being an addict should not preclude a person getting a roof over their head.
Austin O’Carroll told TDs and Senators the main causes of homelessness and addiction are poverty and inequality and dismissed the idea that it comes down to bad choices in people’s lives.
He said people living in poverty “see drug addiction as a way of treating the trauma” in their lives.
“It’s not a choice at all,” he said.
One man who has been living in a tent along the Grand Canal in Dublin for over a year started on methadone and within six weeks he has stopped living there, has moved into accommodation and has stopped using heroin.
In contrast, Dr O’Reilly spoke of one patient who has a drug addiction that has been “out of control” in the last three months since he has been living in a hostel.
In just one week recently, he had three overdoses and needed to be revived with the opioid-overdose antidote naloxone each time.
Meet people where they are
The committee also heard how physical and mental illness can push people into homelessness. One woman who used Safetynet’s services is suffering from depression. She is a single parent in her 20s and is “not coping with managing the household expenses”.
She failed on one rent payment and is to be evicted this week.
Typical health services can sometimes be inappropriate or inaccessible for homeless people and other vulnerable groups, the committee heard.
O’Reilly gave the example of a woman called Julie, whose right leg was “completely swollen from foot to groin”.
It has been like this for six weeks, she has had a deep venous clot in the past and it is likely she has another now. She knows this could block off an artery and cause instant death and she has been referred twice in the last six weeks to the Emergency Department but has not gone.
“Services need to meet people where they are at,” she said.
Her colleague Austin O’Carroll gave an example of this patient centred approach they developed with staff at St James’ Hospital in Dublin.
Safetynet had 40 people with Hepatitis C who he referred to the hospital for treatment. He told all of them this treatment was extremely effective and lifesaving.
Still, 26 of them missed their appointments. Now the treatment is bring brought to them in their hostel.
Representatives told the committee that the most effective treatment in these situations is the provision of a stable housing environment. They spoke out strongly against the reintroduction of bedsits into the housing supply.
Niamh Randall said the last thing they wanted was to see vulnerable people “living in a very isolated situation” having moved out of homelessness.
We need to look at what we’re building and what we’re providing. Building three-bed semi d’s all over the country is not the way to go. We need to provide for people at the different stages of their lives.
“The State stopped building and providing social housing, we need to be very clear that is the solution,” she added.
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I know there’s a lot of people who will take joy in his death but people seem to forget it was the Unionist injustices in places like Derry that got the Nationalist people out marching. Then the marchers were murdered by the British Army. That is why Martin McGuinness and hundreds more young men joined the ranks of the IRA.. Nobody grows up wanting to be involved in shootings and bombings, but sometimes you have to stand up and fight for what you believe in. Pearse and Connolly would tell you the same if they were still alive today..
@Cosmo Kramer: the people who would take joy out of his death are the guys who thought it was their obligation to bear arms to protect themselves from the IRA. The true leaders are the ones like Hume who seen through the arms race that carrying a gun brings. Though you are perfectly right, Connolly and Pearse had absolutely no problem with killing anyone who had a different opinion, and their legacy was made when they were martyred (people generally overlook that Connolly was running around Dublin with guns for a while, and Pearse was a wannabe soldier shooting aimlessly at people on his day of reckoning). McGuinness and Adams are hoping for the same legacy – at least Martin was more honest and transparent about why.
PS: I must admit (even though I’m trying to be honest and not troll in any way), I also miss the red thumbs that show the sway of opinions, even if they would be biased against any anti-ira rhetoric on a day like today.
@Gulliver Foyle: Red thumbs removed to frustrate any investigation into rigging
@Cosmo Kramer: Sorry, but not sad to see him gone and Adam’s next I hope. Killing and maiming people, is not the solution and Gandhi drove British out of India without resorting to violence of that kind.
I hope the Journal allows for legitimate criticism of this man over the next few days.
Please ignore the lies, propaganda and faux-outrage of the legion of SF/PIRA supporters here.
@Gulliver Foyle: Seeing as you miss the red thumbs, you can take it that I have given you one.
@Diarmuid: what a great time you’ve picked for legitimate criticism, hours after the man has passed. I mean you do little else but criticize republicanism most days, why publicly comment that you don’t want your provocative posts removed today? “Lies, propaganda and faux-outrage”, nope, just people expressing their condolences.
Even a proud bigot like Foster can show an inkling of decorum, but not you Diarmuid, safely ensconced behind your keyboard.
And stephen murphy after adams i hope..what a sad person you are stephen.was it ok for the brits to kill catholics ?
@Diarmuid: there’s nothing wrong with legitimate criticism of his past but also there’s nothing wrong with acknowledging the good he did in later life. To ignore either is wrong.
@Diarmuid: McGuinness took up arms against one of the most powerful militaries in the world, fought for his ideals til the last few weeks of his life, while you comment on the Journal day after day hidden behind a fake Twitter account. It’s pretty obvious to me who the coward is.
@Ruairi O Neill: well no, actually it was often cowardly bombs placed in civilian locations, the towns and villages of the north, but feel free to beef up the story if you like to think of him as a hero.
@Scundered: You also spout on about how cowardly he was, also from an anonymous Twitter account.
Nothing in my previous comment denies that it was a dirty war or suggests McGuinness didn’t do wrong. But you are blinkered to the fact that he was one of the main people who helped bring about the current peace in the North.
@Ruairi O Neill:
Diarmuid doesn’t have the deaths of children and other innocent civilians on his hands. ISIS fight for their ideals as well, but when civilians are involved, it’s murder no matter what way you look at it.
No one here is condoning what the UVF, etc and British armed forces. Plenty here seem to condone what McGuinness did.
That he never owned up for those innocent lives is that mark of a true coward and enemy of the Irish Republic.
@Ruairi O Neill: Hear Hear Ruairi, a pathetic snowflake troll is all he is.
Two things are certain;
1. Without Mr McGuiness we would have violence in the north
2. Without Mr McCuiness we would not have peace in the north .
RIP
3. Without McGuinness and his moral bankruptcy, the Troubles would never have escalated to the same extent.
4. Without McGuinness and his ilk, so many more innocent civilians would be alive today.
@Diarmuid: You’re a narrow minded little man who can’t grasp the severity of the civil rights abuses that were taking place against the catholics of the 6 counties. Read some history snd understand that every oppressed people stood up for themselves at some stage when they were pushed beyond a certain point. War is never an easy choice or option but sometimes when people are backed into a corner they react with a venom that is detrimental to all . At least when the time came Martin made the choice to lay down arms and make peace with his enemies, much like other revolutionary leaders who are revered today as peacemakers.
@Diarmuid: …and thank God he overcame the likes of you and your bigoted ante-diluvian mindset to deliver the peace everyone on the island of Ireland wanted, you and your ilk being the exception of course.
R.I.P a Political Giant …
Laoch na nGael. Slán a chara. A humble man who resisted British oppression and fought for the indigenous Irish who found themselves on the wrong side of an unjustifiable border.
May Martin McGuinness Rest in Peace. I am intrigued by the bad man becomes a good man analogy especially by those who were not directly impacted and by a lazy media. The bad man experience was borne out of a set of circumstances which saw him and his community oppressed and suppressed by a largely authoritative body. Before we criticise, we need to reflect on why he and others reacted in the way they did. And how would each of us have turned out had we been raised in such an environment. There was terrible violence on all sides. If we are to learn anything it is to ensure that the circumstances which breed inequality, indifference and hate must never be enabled again. So let us start with the true beginning of the story. He was not a bad man becomes a good man. He was a man who reacted to an oppressive set of circumstances. Please do not insult the NI community for behaving badly or being feral, who finally grew up or were tamed by the authorities. These were people who refused to accept that they were secondary or third class citizens, who resisted and fought and who strove to bring about a better life for the future. Derry has to deal with the deaths of two fine men this week who showed remarkable leadership in their very different lives. May you rest in peace martin. And ThanK You and to all others like you for leading people to this place.
RIP
I was born in Belfast, and raised as a Protestant, and am quite proud of my Protestant heritage. But im just as proud of a man who stood up, admitted to his past, and strived to bring the fragile peace to this island. Himself and big Ian saw past the petty propaganda and had a vision for the children of this country. Im married to a Catholic woman and now live in Dublin, with 2 sons who will hopefully never experience the sectarianism and bigotry I did as a teenager. Thank you Martin, may you rest in peace and long may your legacy last.
What I admired about McGuinness is that he was proud of his past but was prepared to work hard at creating peace when the time came. A modern day Michael Collins you might say. I often thought history would repeat itself and he’d go the same way as Collins but thankfully he didn’t. Rip Martin.
I wonder will time treat him as kindly as Michael Collins… When you strip things to bare bones there are alot of similarities …
@Groundhurling: This is an intriguing question. Could it be that Collins had a democratic mandate from the 1918 election, while McGuinness had not? Speculation of course
@The Crant: Collins was involved in armed conflict before the 1918 election, so your attempts to obfuscate the situation are pretty vivid.
@Groundhurling: How many children did Collins kill?
Yeah I thought so..
A sad loss to the people of Ireland. A truly great statesman. RIP
RIP
War and Peace…it was an epic journey and thankfully ended in peace. We should all recognise the legacy of reconciliation he hoped to engender over the last two decades.
R.i.p Martin McGuinness,a true patriot and statesman who will be remembered for his huge contribution toward peace on this island.
Rip martin. A giant fighting for equality for all. He proved that people and their thinking can change and pushed for the talks. He showed dignity when Paisley died and offered condolences to his family, why can’t those on the other side do the same now. How many unionist have come south of the border to shake hands and meet our President or government? A historic day when martin met the queen and showed how much peace was wanted be Republicans.
Strived to bring peace to Northern Ireland and even in ill health he worked tirelessly to the end. Sad day for this island, RIP Martin.
A true statesman and gent. May we see his like again.
@The Risen: Yay more car bombs for everyone
There’s definitely a BIG drop in comments since the revamp. I predict a uturn
@vNblxOSQ: hate this new format . Pandering to the snowflake generation but don’t hold your breath on a u turn.
@Alan Chapman: let the red thumb Rest In Peace they served no useful purpose.
@Boganity: Yes they did. They showed those reading the comment section how the public viewed the comments. It’s just a pity that it was sometimes hijacked to try influence public opinion
He done some awful things in his life. One hopes in his last moments he thought about his victims
@Eye_c_u: B-Grade troll
@Eye_c_u: give his track record as a peacemaker and working the channels even as far back as the hunger strikes I would say he prevented a lot of violence taking place even as a member of the IRA back in the worst of the troubles
@Eye_c_u: freedom is always a dirty fight you clown! Read the history of any occupied land!The privilege you have to right such a comment came from our patriots such a Martin McGiuinness.
To his credit, he did stop committing atrocities at some point. Not sure how that warrants the title “peace maker”, though.
Glad to have met him in the market in Cork when he was on the campaign trail.
RIP Patriot
May he rest in peace
I always had an admiration for McGuinness’ honesty, he never shied away from his past, but acknowledged it. His hard work for lasting peace in Northern Ireland will ensure his place in history.
RIP Martin McGuiness a true son of Ireland he brought peace to N/Ireland in our time
Must have killed Foster to say something positive about the man.
@Andrew Corcoran: her interest is in maintaining the divide, she’s not fit to comment on the life of this man
A true statesman, the likes of which a nation rarely produces in a generation. He was a great leader who led from the front and was fearless in defence of his people during many many years of repression and suffering. He took risks for peace, gave example and challenged others. He has gone far too soon but his example and legacy will continue to grow and mature among the Republican people he was part of until his goal of a united, free and equal society is finally realised in Ireland.
The simple fact is That Martin Mcguinness was the one who brought the peace in Northern Ireland. The other people involved assisted him.
But HE was the one who was the Architect of the project and will be forever remembered for it.
I hope and pray that they can resume to a power sharing arrangement. It would be a fitting tribute to this great man that was Martin Mcguinness.
Rest in peace Martin,you done your job..
Thank you.
@Gerry Fallon: I guess you have never heard of John Hume in that case.
@Scundered: there’s always someone to ruin the moment isint there.
If you could just think before you spew out your sarcastic comment and try understand what I am really saying,and that is HE made the IRA realise that democracy was the only way forward and as he always admitted He WAS a member of the IRA who could talk to them.
John Hume played his part and done a great job but Martin Mcguinness Guinness was the key ok.
So chill and stop being so cynical.
@Gerry Fallon: Hume didn’t have the blood of hundreds on his hands, that’s the mark of a man of peace.
We’re now being told to “stop being cynical”aboout an organisation that bombed indiscrimately and waged a war or terror for three decades, killimg countless innocent adults and children, while at the same time claiming to be in favour of civil rights. Give me strength.
The number of people here that are utterly oblivious to the track record of english/british history on this island for centuries is shameful.Anywhere else it would be put down to patriotism, lesser evils or even collateral damage.Of course there were tragic victims and atrocities on both sides but even someone who struggles to count to twenty can see the record was massively imbalanced towards the irish people.THAT is the reason young men like martin fought and in many cases gave their lives so ponces sitting in front of a pc 30 years later would find the concept alien. I fcuking despair.
@Raymond Power: They planted bombs under innocent children for no reason other than that they were British.
A freedom fighter, a visionary, a peacemaker and a class A politician. RIP Martin McGuinness, a man who will go down in history as a true Irish patriot.
If there had been no armed struggle in 1916 – 1922 some form of independence might have been achieved here anyway, likewise in 1969 in the North. Bloody Sunday was a barbaric act by the British. All this trouble proves that invasion or uncontrolled immigration can turn a majority into a minority and leave natives strangers in their own country. Native Americans being a prime example, with the Irish impacted too. Trump see this and acts, yet he is condemned.
Martin McGuinness did work for peace, for that and saddened at his early passing, I say. Rest in Peace.
@The Crant: Did you just compare invasion to “uncontrolled immigration”, relate it to Native Americans ramble along some more, then essentially call Trump the Saviour? The same Trump willing to ploughing ahead with a pipeline endangering Native lands in North Dakota?
F*cking try harder, man. Jesus.
@The Crant: What armed struggle? If you think car bombing towns and villages is some sort of romantic textbook “armed struggle” god help us.
Rip you did well to turn things around
Red thumbs
Perhaps we should all stop commenting and just write “red thumbs” til they come back.
RIP
IF there is a heaven and IF he gets in, what do you think he will say to all those he helped to get there earlier than they should have? Especially the children?
I’m sure he’d have a hard time finding them with all the dead Iraqi, Syrian, Libyan, Vietnamese and many more children that were murdered at the hands of the British and their friends!
RIP Joanne Mathers and Mary Travers.
Dominent figure for people of Martins age from this neck of the woods. I would like to think that History will be kind to him. Will be missed on Inch. Thoughts and prayers for his family and community.
Its very easy for people from the Irish republic to comment on the dynamics of Northern Ireland’s conflict and people like Martin McGuinness or on loyalist side like David Irvine experiences in life were shaped by a political intransigence at best or total distain which suited the British political class in the uk for cultural politically and financially when most Irish southern people who comment on the violence or blame the Nationalist community refusal to continue to accepting a 2nd rate role in the affairs of the towns and communities they lived in have never crossed the border into Northern Ireland.
Southern Irish political establishment and Catholic Church even during the Hunger strikes sided with Maggie Thatcher’s world view washed there hands of the Nationalist community suffering.
During this period, after the outbreak of armed conflict in Northern Ireland in 1969, O’Brien developed a deep hostility to militant Irish republicanism and to Irish nationalists generally in Northern Ireland, reversing the views he articulated at the outset of the unrest.[18] He also reversed his opposition to broadcasting censorship imposed by the previous government, by extending and vigorously enforcing censorship of Radio Teilefís Éireann (RTÉ) under Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act. In 1976 he specifically banned spokespersons for Sinn Féin and the Provisional Irish Republican Army from RTÉ. At the same time, he attempted unsuccessfully to get Britain’s BBC 1 television channel broadcast on Ireland’s proposed second television channel, instead of allowing RTÉ to run it.
Two additional notable incidents affected O’Brien’s career as minister, besides his support for broadcasting censorship.
In August 1976 Bernard Nossiter of the Washington Post interviewed O’Brien regarding the passage of an Emergency Powers Bill. During the course of the interview O’Brien revealed an intention to extend censorship beyond broadcasting. He wished to “cleanse the culture” of republicanism and said he would like the bill to be used against teachers who allegedly glorified Irish revolutionaries. He also wanted it used against newspaper editors who published pro-republican or anti-British readers’ letters.O’Brien mentioned the Irish Press as a newspaper which in particular he hoped to use the legislation against and produced a file of Irish Press letters to the editor to which he took exception. Nossiter immediately informed Irish Press editor Tim Pat Coogan of O’Brien’s intentions. and stifled any comments under Section 31 of the Irish Republics broadcasting act was brought in by a then Labour Minister Coner Cruise O Brienn who later became a member of the unionist party in the North and O Brians family politicial background of the old Irish Parliamentary Party broadcasting act to people deemed unacceptable to the Dublin based Irish political class. The Dublin based media still are a mouthpiece for southern Neo Con Unionist mindset as per FG /FF/LAB that still comments in RTE and newspaper agendas. RTE has always swings from a Pro EU Pravda or West Brit FG/FF/LAB British Government /Unionist stance on reporting on Northern Ireland. We have the majority of the newspapers in the north controlled by unionist owners and their fellow UK based newspapers always followed a Unionist slant. Any debates was always a one sided agendas at play.I have travelled extensivley across the norhet from 7 years old to I’m my 50′s now and can say without any bias the the media in there reporting has added to the mess.
Its with great sadness I awoke today. A comrade, a leader, a gentleman passed today.
As a proud republican, it was people like Martin that showed their was a better way forward, one without guns and bombs.
To say I’m truly devastated is a massive understatement, my heart is heavy with nothing but sorrow.
RIP Martin it was a pleasure to have had conversations and listen to you speak, A true legend, Ireland has indeed lost another of its bravest sons.
Absolutely devastated :(
McGuinness and the republican movement generally used Bloody Sunday to justify the intensification of their armed struggle, but the deaths of innocent nationalists was only a concern when it could be exploited for political ends. That armed struggle saw the Provos murder more nationalists than the Paras ever did, yet there wasn’t one expression of remorse from these hypocrites. Even after the ceasefire the murders continued. Garda Jerry McCabe, Paul Quinn, Robert McCartney and others were all murdered by an organisation whose raisin d’etre was supposedly the protection of Irish nationalists. In the case of the latter, it was the south Belfast IRA unit who’d just returned from Derry following a Bloody Sunday commemoration that decided a totally innocent man should die. It takes hypocrisy to a whole new nauseating level.
@Catherine Blake: Catherine, the day after the bloody sunday atrocity, there were scores of young men queuing up in Derry and across the north. As happened during and after the hunger strikes. As happened after the Ballymurphy massacre. The biggest recruitment sergeants the IRA ever had were the British army generals and politicians like thatcher.
@Andrew Corcoran: Exactly. And following Bloody Friday- and every other indiscriminate attack before and after- the ranks of loyalist gangs became filled with people intent on revenge. That’s why the ‘armed struggle’ was counterproductive and doomed to failure: the more the IRA murdered, the more determined and radicalized unionists became. This lack of foresight by republicans who supported a murder campaign that was designed to deliver a united Ireland has retrospectively been sold to those naive enough to accept it as a campaign to deliver civil rights. By 1969, all the demands of the civil rights movement had been met and by 1972 housing allocation had been removed from local councils but for the IRA, civil rights were only a means to and end, not the end itself.
Glad the red thumbs are gone, it thwarts the shinners from trying to manipulate public comment, and voting down genuine people all the time, although they can still bombard forums like this and make negative comments about others, but at least it`s a start
@Patrick James Walsh: You another snowflake ?
In a divided land with a divided people he was a kind of mediator in the middle. He now faces judgement from the almighty who mercifully decides the good from the bad. RIP
@Michael Maher: nothing says mediation and balance as much as a car bomb in a town centre.
@Scundered: nothing says collusion like several car bombs in Dublin and Monaghan planted by British agents, assembled by British soldiers and covered up by west Brit blueshirts.
Great man rip
A great leader and true faithful man Who served his country and people to the fullest May he Rest In Peace Amen
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