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EARLIER THIS MONTH, new official figures revealed that the number of people sleeping rough in Dublin increased to 156.
According to the latest Rough Sleeper Count – carried out twice a year by 100 volunteers – the figures were up 110 from the spring count but down 15% on the last winter count of 184.
Despite there being a drop in the rough sleeper count since last winter, the number of people living in emergency accommodation has continued to rise over the past 12 months and as of November stands at 9,968.
And with these figures in mind, volunteers working on the frontline in Dublin have said the situation has gotten increasingly worse since last Christmas.
Kevin Shanahan, a dental technician, assesses people outside the GPO every Friday and makes dentures for them.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie earlier this month as he fitted a denture on a busy O’Connell Street, Shanahan said that it has “definitely gotten busier” for volunteers over the past year.
“It’s getting harder because you can sense a little bit more anger on the street, people are a bit more impatient. People are sick of what’s happening, basically,” he said.
On a busy night, Shanahan sees between 20-25 people – and he puts in 15-20 hours of work each week at his lab in Leixlip.
During a person’s first meeting with Shanahan, they will get an impression done. Depending on how many teeth are needed, he asks them to return between a week or four weeks later for the denture fitting.
“I have had people crying, they look in the mirror and they can’t believe the difference it makes on their face. It gives people back their confidence,” Shanahan said.
“The first thing you see in people is their eyes and their smile. If they don’t have a smile you find a lot of people are walking around [with their hand over their face], simply because they’re embarrassed,” he said.
What I’m doing is giving them the chance to actually walk up to someone, put a smile on their face and feel a little bit more confident in themselves. It makes a massive difference.
TheJournal.ie also spoke to Shanahan in December 2017:
‘They can’t afford to feed their family’
Working alongside other groups of volunteers outside the GPO every Friday night, Shanahan said he has seen a shift in the number of families turning up seeking help.
“One thing I have noticed is that more and more you’ll have families who come down who have accommodation, but the rent is so high they can’t afford to feed their family,” he said.
“So, they’re coming down to get a little food parcel, a meal. In this day and age that’s insane.”
Alongside Shanahan’s workstation, the Muslim Sisters of Éire had an ad-hoc stall set up and were providing supplies and food to those in need.
Usually, a group from Newry Helping the Homeless, along with a team of volunteer barbers and hairdressers work alongside Shanahan and the Muslim Sisters. However, they weren’t around on this given night.
Amongst those queuing at the stalls were numerous families, some with young children and buggies.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie chairperson of Muslim Sisters Lorraine O’Connor echoed the words of Shanahan.
“There’s been a huge shift in families … families are walking the streets, from morning to evening, they’re walking the streets,” O’Connor said.
“A lot of these people are on social welfare and the cost of eating out every single day is just eating up what they have,” she said.
So, they’re looking for any kind of surplus food or ambience food or non-perishable food that they can take home and use during the week without having to go out and buy shopping again.
After receiving their goods, some families, along with single men and women stood around chatting as they ate their meal, while others filled their bags with supplies they had been given.
‘The city is in a crisis’
Reflecting on her experience on the frontline of the homeless crisis over the past year, O’Connor took a moment to look back on when she first started volunteering.
“I’m going to bring you back to 2012, that’s when we started from my house making sandwiches and going out on a Friday night. Back then, you’d have about two flasks and about 50 sandwiches and that was a lot, you’d come back with some,” she said.
The increase in demand between 2012 and now “is just drastic”, O’Connor said.
“The city is going into a crisis … it’s not going into a crisis, it’s in a crisis,” she said.
We don’t celebrate Christmas, but we’re recognising the strain on people and we’re supporting and sending out hampers.
“It’s great that people know us but some think that because you’re a Muslim organisation … some people think they can’t reach out. No, we’re here to help everybody. The religion doesn’t come into this at all,” she said.
‘Nothing is being tackled’
During their conversations with TheJournal.ie, both O’Connor and Shanahan expressed a sense of frustration and anger towards the government and the progress, or lack of, being made with regards to the housing and homeless crisis.
As noted above, emergency accommodation figures for October show that there are now collectively 9,724 people living in homeless accommodation across Ireland.
At the time, Minister Eoghan Murphy claimed that the overall increase in people in emergency accommodation on the month previous can be explained by “new beds being provided to help take people from rough sleeping and into our supported services”.
“While it is, of course, better to see people in emergency accommodation rather than out on the streets, we continue to see an increase in the number of adults seeking help. This underlines the importance of the continued rollout of Housing First, as well as additional supports for single homelessness,” he said.
It was announced in November that the Dublin Region Homeless Executive will make 333 extra beds available this winter as it aims to meet a rise in demand for its services during cold weather.
Despite the rollout of extra beds and initiatives such as Housing First, which aims to give homeless people a home first, and to provide care plans and support after, both Shanahan and O’Connor claimed not enough is being done by the government to tackle the crisis.
“Nothing is being tackled, nothing is being dealt with, you know?” Shanahan said.
“The government can set up all the task forces they want, they can set up all the committees they want, but basically, all they are is talk shops,” he said.
O’Connor said that government officials need to come out on the streets and see the “real situation”.
“I have no faith at all in the government. I think they need to come down here any night. There are other soup runs too and they do amazing work,” she said.
The government need to come down and see this and look at the real, real situation on the frontline, hands on.
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I am coming around to the opinion that instead of stopping these idiots going to Syria , we should be flying them out to “paradise”. Mosul has water and electricity 3 hours a day, food is in short supply and there is constant fighting, It’s a long way form Rochdale and seeing as TV is banned, music is banned unless it’s religious, smoking is banned, food must be muslim prepared. IS burned 2 truck loads of halal chicken recently because it came from the US.
If someone wants to go to this sort of hell I say let them off because if they are of that mindset then why would you want them living next door to you? It would be a case of “Here we are, the Islamic State now give me your passport and don’t come back!”
Gotta lurve that multi-culturism!
They were trying to bring children there. You can’t allow that. Also some of the people who went there – I’m thinking of those three Muslim girls – are simply too immature to be able to make any kind of sensible decision. They absolutely have to be headed off at the pass if possible.
As for the rest -adults- I hear what you’re saying: they’re able to make their own decisions. However there is a huge danger that they’d return even more messed up then when they left and they’d pose a huge risk for a suicide bomb or something similar.
And yet we let the Halawas, some of whom were children at the time, head off jihading and our border gardai failed to stop them. All who go should not be let back. Let them savour the joys of sharia in its magnificence.
I’m probably going to get lambasted for this, but here goes. Right now I wouldn’t trust any male followers of Islam, especially the younger ones. The radicalization of followers of Islam right now worldwide is more than just contagious, it’s an epidemic.
I wholeheartedly agree Stephen!
Thank you Rachel, I just honestly believe that as far as Islam is concerned, the lunatics have taken over the asylum.
I disagree. If we tar all Muslims with the same brush we do them an injustice. Remember the British thought the same about the irish in the 70s & 80s. Islamic groups are trying to overcome islamic extremists although its an uphill battle. Groups like Quilliam are the future of a modern islam. Their views on islam & islamists are fresh & encouraging.
“Imagine there’s no countries It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace”
John Lennon.
Thats completely wrong Stephen and unfair. Muslim people in Ireland are our work colleagues, our neighbours our children’s friends and our friends. Its extremely unfair to alienate and isolate them with attitudes like that. I can understand the attitude though as all the media does is paint them in a bad light. We should know better considering our history.
i really don’t think thats correct. it all depends on how happy and contented they feel in their home country. india has 180 million muslims, number but around odd 80 have gone to fight with ISIS. Also Indian muslim leaders have repeatedly preached against ISIS.
It’s jihad, innit, bruv….
Modern and Islam in the same sentence ! , is that a first ?
@mjhint – Brigitte Gabriel explains why your comment is a naïve one.
http://youtu.be/Ry3NzkAOo3s
@ronan stokes – It’s not about what the media says, rather, it’s about what the Koran says…
http://youtu.be/Ry3NzkAOo3s
I’ve seen this many times. It doesn’t explain any naivety in my comment. You obviously know little about Quilliam I suggest you look it up. It maybe the future of islam. Its a change we can all embrace.
@Mjhint – Islam is about what the Koran instructs, not about what such groups claim it to instruct. You as an unbeliever must submit to Islam it says. You are inferior to them in every way and must give way to them in every way – if necessary, with your life. Islam is actively working to deceive you and others like you as it’s strategy to dominate you and the society you have grown up in. It’s ultimate goal is to take over. It is all laid out in the Koran in black and white, whether you want to believe it or not. So, keep putting your faith in the group you mentioned if that gives you comfort. It changes nothing. Go ahead and embrace it as you say…
Cancel his passport and leave him there .
Cancel their passports.
Id go on as to say let them enter Syria then cancel there passports so they cant get back out and on to a plane ever again
I don’t believe for a second the Labour coucillor had ‘no idea’ about his son’s inclinations. Just last week a story emerged in which a father in the Uk whose son had joined Isis and also claimed to have ‘no idea’ was pictured at Islamist rallies organised by hate preacher Anjem Choudary ripping up a British flag.
The seed is usually planted at home and in the mosque from a young age and British Muslims are usually encouraged from a young age to have disdain for the kuffir.
He would report his son to the authorities? I highly doubt that, as the saying goes blood is thicker than water!
2-5 years in a British jail or 205 minutes on the battlefield. Hardly a hard choice for any parent.
Just goes to show you never know where these nut cases come from. .
Tallagh? ?!!
Allowing large numbers of Muslim into Europe is nothing else but planting Trojan Horse.
Nigel Farage likes this.
I will be arresting and questioning there parents. Don’t for one second believe they don’t know where there kids are.
Generally Irish people are open and welcoming. Indeed we have that reputation worldwide and I like that as one of our national characteristics.
However, one of the downsides is that we now have absolutely no idea who we have living in our towns and villages.
We cannot and should not be afraid to stand up and ask for our immigration laws to be tightened in the face of this.
‘my son is a good muslim’..well there’s your problem right there!
If the son was a good muslim, he would have stayed well away from ISIS
A ‘good’ muslim must follow the example of Mohammad.
But Mohammad was a war-monger who murdered thousands of innocent people, simply for not converting to his new ‘Islam’
Mohammad also had a child ‘bride’ called Aisha bint Abu Bakr, – she was nine years old when Mohammad first had full intercourse with her, He was 54yo.
Muslims must look upon Mohammad as the ‘perfect example’ (insan al-khemi) – to follow.
This seems to fit in with Worldwide Islamic atrocities.
have your say