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Remarks at the Launch of the Refurbishment of Back Lane Hostel for Homeless Men

Dublin, 10th November 2011

Dia dhíbh a cháirde. Tá an-áthas orm bheith i bhur measc anseo ar an ócáid speisialta seo. Míle bhuíochas díbh as an gcuireadh agus an fáilte a thug sibh dom.

Ladies and Gentlemen

Thank you for that very kind welcome. I’m delighted to be here this morning to officially open the newly refurbished Back Lane hostel and I’d like to thank Tommy O’Reilly for his kind invitation to join you all.

Today I move out of the place that has been my home for fourteen years. It has been, not just a place where I have lived for almost a decade and a half, but the place where I have raised my family, welcomed my friends, come back to at the end of a tiring day, and created many, many happy memories that will be with me for life. I have been very fortunate to live in a succession of happy homes but many others have not shared that sense and comfort of home that is usually taken for granted.

Being denied a home is not only about being denied the basic requirement for a roof over our heads, it is also about being denied a sense of belonging, of safety and refuge, of an anchor point in life and of having a defined place in society. I have had that experience too when, back in 1972, my family were violently put out of our home and left to rely on the charity of family and friends for a very unhappy and terrifying period. The memory of losing almost instantly all the things that we had taken so much for granted has always stayed with me but we were fortunate that, although the emotional effects of the trauma were lifelong, we were able to put a home together again and to start all over.

It can be difficult, sometimes, to adjust to the reality that life has not turned out as we would have wished. The story behind each person’s homeless experience is very different - a complex mix  that can range across health problems, to family or relationship breakdown, failure of institutional care, abuse, financial problems, job loss, weak family support or emigration. The loss of a fixed abode is often the start of an estrangement from family, friends and community and an aloneness that can be deep, profound and paralysing. The joy in life drains away, the light of care for oneself switches off and the apparent indifference of the comfortable people who walk by compounds the sense of isolation. Sometimes families or communities have given up on the homeless and sometimes the homeless have given up on themselves.  

But the Back Lane Hostel is the physical proof that care exists, that love exists and that there is help. I came here today - the last event of my Presidency - because this work brings me back to where I first began to understand the need for love and the responsibility we have to be the hands and hearts of healing and helping those who are wounded by life. In my mid-teens I joined the St Vincent de Paul Society and helped out at a hostel like this one, in Belfast. I know the volunteer effort that it takes to make this place happen and keep on happening every day; the determination it takes to plan better facilities and fundraise to develop them.

This newly upgraded and refurbished hostel sends out an important message of reassurance to the clients who use it. It tells them that they are worthwhile and that they can rebuild shattered lives; that their lives can escape the cul-de-sac of hopelessness and can enter the light of hope again.

These past fourteen years I have been uniquely placed to see how much sheer goodness is invested in others every day by our people. The people of Ireland are mostly caring, compassionate and generous. It is good that they are. It is essential that they are for not everyone is lucky in life and each of us, at some time in our lives, needs to know that there is someone we can lean on to get through a rough patch. Thank you to the members of the St Vincent de Paul for making this work their vocation. Thank you to the residents for welcoming me into their newly refurbished home. I hope that every door you open here will let in a much more joyful and appealing future. That is the wish we all have for each one of you - a future filled with hope and self belief. Go raibh mile maith agaibh go leir.