On Thursday night I attended a seminar in Athy’s Art Centre on drugs
and alcohol addiction. In the 140 years
since it was built the Centre, which doubles as the Methodist Church on
Sundays, can hardly ever have hosted a more important gathering. Young people were to the fore as the Chairman
of the Joint Policing Committee, Councillor James Mahon, introduced the
speakers.
One such speaker, a young man, now a volunteer in Athy’s Cuan
Mhuire, introduced himself as a recovering heroin addict and an alcoholic. He spoke eloquently and movingly of his life
as an addict and how he had managed to turn his life around while a resident in
Cuan Mhuire. It was an inspiring address
which received a well deserved round of applause from the audience which filled
the 100 seater auditorium. Listening to
the young man, whose name regrettably I omitted to note, I thought of the
difficulties presented to the founder of Cuan Mhuire after she had opened the Centre
in Athy. Sister Consilio’s story is well
known and has been chronicled in the past by several writers. What may not be so well known or remembered
are the difficulties presented for Sr. Consilio and her team of volunteers when
some of the civic leaders of Athy raised objections to her drug rehabilitation
centre in the town. I recall members of
Athy Urban District Council expressing fears as to the consequences of having a
drug treatment unit in Cuan Mhuire, which the more pessimistic of them felt
would inevitably draw ‘a bad rough crowd
to the South Kildare town’. Indeed
the concerns expressed found voice also amongst many townspeople. Those fears proved in the long term to be
unfounded, even though there was a period in the Centre’s early life when the
business of the local District Court devoted an inordinate amount of time to
persons associated, rightly or wrongly, with Cuan Mhuire.
Cuan Mhuire today provides residential detoxification and treatment
for alcohol, drugs and other addictions.
The Athy Centre, founded in 1966, was the first Cuan Mhuire in
Ireland. Today there are Cuan Mhuire
treatment centres in Bruree, Co. Limerick, Coolarne, Co. Galway, Farnanes, Co.
Cork and Newry Town. There are also a
number of after care centres providing facilities for addicts in recovery and
their families. Seven of these centres
are located in counties Tipperary, Monaghan, Limerick, Kerry, Galway, Cork and
Dublin. To complete the treatment
programme residential transition houses are available to allow former Cuan
Mhuire residents to live independently until they can secure their own
accommodation. Five such houses are
located throughout Ireland.
The open door policy practiced by Cuan Mhuire provides a unique
treatment programme for approximately 3,000 persons every year. It is a venture which was first started by
Sr. Consilio of the Sisters of Mercy in a disused building attached to the
Mercy Convent in Athy. As a member of
the Mercy congregation Sister Consilio received support and assistance from the
members of her local convent and from her Sisters of Mercy superiors. The continued success of the Cuan Mhuire
venture, which is now the country’s largest multi site addiction treatment
provider, is further proof of the outstanding work by members of the Sisters of
Mercy since the congregation’s foundation in 1831.
The seminar in the Arts Centre brought home to me the extraordinary
achievements of Sr. Consilio and her team of volunteers over the last 46
years. It was the unscripted talk given
by the young recovering heroin addict which awakened in me the realisation that
Cuan Mhuire has proved to be a wonderful example of what can be achieved by
determination and an unwillingness to accept failure. Sr. Consilio and the young man who spoke in
the Arts Centre last Thursday evening should be an inspiration for us all.
Congratulations to everyone involved in organising the seminar and
staffing the various stands which offered material on community based services
for those afflicted by addiction or otherwise troubled in their lives. It was an excellently organised and well
attended function, no doubt thanks to the hard work of the Rapid organisation,
Sergeant Tom Harte of the local Garda Station and the Joint Policing Committee chaired by Councillor William Mahon.
Athy Heritage Centre will be the venue for a lecture entitled ‘Titanic – Kildare Connections’ by the
author James Durney on Tuesday, 10th April at 7.30 p.m. I understand there is no admission fee. The lecture is being held in conjunction with
the exhibition presently in the Heritage Centre on ‘Athy in 1912’, the year that the world’s most luxurious liner sank
on its maiden voyage.
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