Father Michael Mernagh laughs gently when he recalls being taken into custody well over 30 years ago: “We were arrested out in Firhouse, for supporting a Traveller family. We went out to support the family, a number of priests and nuns, and we were arrested by the Gardai,” he remembers.
It must have been a bizarre scene, as the Gardai came to take away the religious folk, who were looking to shelter a family who were being moved on.
– arrested defending Travellers, targeted by Haughey, fought injustices in Ireland and South Africa
“We were locked up in the cells for some time. The case was heard and the judge told us to go home and behave ourselves and he gave us the Probation Act. In his summing up, he said ‘We are all in the dock.’ In other words we are all responsible for the terrible conditions that Travellers are in on the roadside.”
Turning 88 this year, he has vast experience of community work, not just in Ireland but as far away as South Africa, while he also lived in Nigeria
In this country, he is a founder of the South Inner City Community Development Association (one of two organisations that later voluntarily merged to form The Liberties Community project) and he was the manager of an independent organisation that preceeded the Combat Poverty Agency.
Anti-Poverty Work
A relatively deprived early life has led to him spending much of his life helping those in difficulty.
“It was just my background, I suppose, where I came from. We were born into poverty in a way. There were ten of us in the family down in Kilkenny and that had a big bearing on where you went and what you did. That was part of it. From then on my life really was in working with communities. Not as a church-based person, but as a facilitator. I had come back from Nigeria in 1969 and then I studied community development in Manchester.”
He served in the 1970s as manager of the non-statutory Combat Poverty Organisation (a precursor to the Combat Poverty Agency established in 1986) until it was closed down by then minister and future Taoiseach Charles Haughey.
“We were operating out of a building in Charlemont Street, it’s still there. Charlie Haughey decided to close us down. There was an angry meeting between the late Sister Stanislaus, himself and myself inside in the department.”
Haughey’s motivations for the closure were infuriating.
“We were angry about the whole thing. The reason he closed it was because he hadn’t set it up. It was closed for a number of years until the Department revamped it and reopened it, under the Department of Social Welfare. It was completely different then, it was a government operation whereas we had been independent.”
Of course, as an independent organisation, it was shining a light on truths that were uncomfortable for the Government.
“We had programmes all over Ireland, from Donegal to Castletownbere. All the time we were arguing about the fact that people’s rights were being denied and their voice was not being heard. It was a voice for the voiceless. We had local committees all over the country. We were out on the islands, Arranmore and Inishboffin, all over the place at the time.”
He recalls being involved in activism in Limerick back in the 1990s that led to the setting up of a group called People Action Against Unemployment Limerick’ (aka the PAUL Partnership, this year rebranded as Limerick City Area Partnership).
“Professor Joyce O’Connor was the person mainly responsible. I had responsibility, with a guy called Patrick Commins, for the management. It was under Poverty III, a European programme,” he said.
Through PAUL he came to know Moyross which at the time had “very few facilities in it.”
• Fr Michael Mernagh at the launch of ‘A Good Story To Tell’, with John Moffett of Misean Cara, and Colin Wrafter, a former ambassador to South Africa. The book is his account of a social inclusion project he helped to set up in South Africa, in partnership with, among others, SICCDA (now known as The Liberties Community Project). Photo by Misean Cara.
“We had nothing on the South Side”
Recalling the establishment of the South Inner City Community Development Association, he says it was to restore some balance between areas divided by the Liffey.
“We had nothing on the South Side, the North Side had everything, Tony Gregory had done a deal with Charlie Haughey. We got together, we said everything is going to the north side, let’s get something for the south side. A group, mostly women, came together and formed the group, and then I joined it. It was established in 1982.”
Resources were scarce, but they pressed ahead. “It was hard enough. We had no money. What I said to the committee at the time was to do it properly and do some research on the needs of people in the area, from the cradle to the grave. That’s what we did and we published it. From there on we did an integrated programme, where we covered everything from the cradle to the grave. We had afterschool for children, from that up to services for the elderly.”
It developed an emergency call system, where the elderly could wear an alarm around their necks, and summon help if required, something that was brought to many parts of the country subsequently.
Father Mernagh says that his role as a man of God is entirely compatible with the work he has done in the community sector.
“It should go hand in hand. The Gospel is all about looking after those in need of care. Every word is about looking after the excluded. If you believe in the gospel you have to be a community activist.”
As well as working hard on programmes in Dublin, for 20 years until 2024 he was also involved in programmes in South Africa, and is still going over and back to check on their progress.
Community work today
Given his background he is well placed to answer fundamental questions, like what community development work really is.
“It is basically a local response, by local people, who form themselves into part of a community or a community. Basically, on a voluntary basis, to respond to the needs as they have identified them in their own communities. That’s what community development should be about in my view,” he says.
What would he say to young people getting into community work today?
“It’s a really good challenging job, or it should be. The big question is who is running or supporting programmes today. There aren’t that many today that you could say are well supported. You need young people above all to be well trained. We have a number of third level institutions for community development training, such as Maynooth. Young people need to be trained and then supported, that’s very important. You can’t leave them off on their own, they need the support of more experienced people.”
He says that communities across Ireland are different nowadays, and he is particularly concerned about those in rural areas.
“Communities are changing so much now, they are so different, particularly in urban areas. The problem in rural areas is that communities are dying. In the west of Ireland there are bad situations where the young people are all leaving. The same thing is happening all across Europe. I’m from south Kilkenny, not far from Waterford. The pub in the village is more or less closed, no one goes in anymore. There’s a big change with young people. As far as I’m concerned the only thing keeping young people going is the GAA. The hurling and football is keeping communities going.
“You always want to be optimistic, but a lot of work will have to be done to keep communities alive. It’s not going to happen by accident. A lot needs to be done at this stage,” he adds.
