Peter McVerry
Born1944 (age 79–80)
Belfast, Northern Ireland
NationalityIrish
OccupationActivist
Known forMcVerry Trust

Fr Peter McVerry, SJ (born 1944) is an Irish Roman Catholic priest and founder of the Peter McVerry Trust, notable for battling homelessness in Ireland.[1] According to one report, the Peter McVerry Trust helped 3,600 homeless people in Dublin in 2013.[2]

Early years

Born in Belfast in 1944, McVery grew up in Newry,Down.[3] He was educated by the Christian Brothers in Abbey Christian Brothers' Grammar School,[4] and later attended Clongowes College. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1962.

He received a BSc in Chemistry (1968) and a Higher Diploma in Education (1996) from University College Dublin in 1963. He studied philosophy and theology in the Jesuit School of Theology in Milltown Park.

Fighting homelessness

Jesuit community at Shangan, Ballymun

After his ordination as a priest in 1975, McVerry lived and worked in Summerhill, North Dublin. During these years he came face to face with the problem of homelessness and deprivation. He set up a trust to help struggling young people.[3] He first worked in Ballymun and the North Inner City during the 1970s when he found young homeless people in the streets.[3][5] In 1983, he founded a charity to tackle homelessness called The Arrupe Society after Jesuit leader Pedro Arrupe, but it was subsequently renamed the Peter McVerry Trust, which began as a three-bedroom flat in Ballymun.

We started working with young people and opened a youth club and a craft centre and then I came across a kid sleeping on the street aged nine-years-old ... We decided we better add a hostel to the services we were already running for young people so we opened a small hostel down in the inner city for six boys, as it was all boys then, there were no girls on the streets in the 1970s.

— Fr Peter McVerry[3]

The trust grew from one flat over the years, to include eleven homeless hostels, over 100 apartments, a residential drug detox centre and two drug stabilisation services. In 1979, he opened a hostel for young homeless boys aged between twelve and sixteen. He focused on those deemed too difficult to deal with by other agencies. McVerry recently opened a residential drug detox centre in County Dublin for homeless drug users. McVerry has lived in Ballymun since 1980.

The homeless in Ireland are not a problem, they are simply people who have come upon difficult times and circumstances.

— Fr Peter McVerry[1]

In 2013, the charity worked with almost 3,600 vulnerable youths. There was controversy in 2014 when a candidate for political office used images of McVerry in campaign leaflets, and McVerry denied that he was endorsing any particular candidate.[6] He appealed to the government to buy more housing for the homeless.[7] He advocated greater spending to help reduce inequality.[8] In 2014, he stated that the crisis of homelessness was threatening middle-class and working-class families.[9]

In 2015, Trinity College Dublin awarded him with an honorary doctorate.[10]

In 2015, he was awarded the UCD Alumni Award in Science.[11]

Peter McVerry Trust

Head office of the McVerry Trust at Mountjoy Square

The Peter McVerry Trust (known previously as The Arrupe Society) was founded in 1983 as a charity to reduce homelessness in Ireland.[12] The organisation was a continuation of work Fr. McVerry had been doing in Ballymun. The Arrupe Jesuit community in Ballymun involved itself directly with missionary work on the ground in one of Dublin’s poorest districts; working to scaffold community-building among socially disadvantaged people.[13]

In 2023, the Approved Housing Bodies Regulatory Authority (AHBRA) appointed inspectors from Mazars to carry out a review of the financing and governance at the charity. Their findings indicated that the organisation was facing serious and immediate cash flow pressures.[14][15]

References

  1. 1 2 "'Pride of Ireland Awards': Homeless campaigner Fr Peter McVerry honoured with Lifetime Achievement Award" by Jilly Beattie, Irish Mirror, 4 June 2014; accessed 10 June 2014.
  2. ↑ Peter McVerry Trust says there's been an increase in the number of homeless families, The Journal, 13 May 2014; accessed 10 June 2014; "...THE PETER MCVERRY Trust helped almost 3,600 homeless people in Dublin last year, that's a 17 per cent increase on 2012...."
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Our hero for life" Archived 14 July 2014 at the Wayback Machine by Jack Gleeson, dublinpeople.com, 9 June 2014; accessed 10 June 2014, "...[Fr] McVerry was presented with his award by the Taoiseach Enda Kenny, at a glittering ceremony shown on TV3...."
  4. ↑ "Fr. McVerry Bio, About Us". Retrieved 9 June 2020.
  5. ↑ Jarlath Regan (16 April 2016). "Peter McVerry". An Irishman Abroad (Podcast) (135 ed.). SoundCloud. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
  6. ↑ "Fr McVerry: ‘I did not endorse candidate’", by Melanie Finn, The Herald, 14 May 2014; accessed 10 June 2014, "...Fr Peter McVerry has echoed Brian O'Driscoll's comments in saying he is not endorsing any candidate who has used his image in election leaflets...."
  7. ↑ Father Peter McVerry: "Tsunami of homelessness" threatening to wash over Ireland due to housing shortage" by Brynmor Pattison, Irish Mirror, 18 May 2014; accessed 10 June 2014, "...And he called on the Government to buy 1,500 houses and apartments to stave off the crisis. Fr McVerry said that this would be far more effective than temporary resolutions such as paying for hostels and shelters...."
  8. ↑ Fergus Finlay interviewed by Ken Cowley, villagemagazine.ie; accessed 10 June 2014, "...Peter McVerry said he'd gladly sit in a few traffic jams if a little of the money spent on infrastructure could be spent on inequality..."
  9. ↑ "Middle-income families caught in homeless crisis": McVerry, by Niamh Horan, The Independent, 25 May 2014; accessed 10 June 2014.
  10. ↑ "Registrar : Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, Ireland". www.tcd.ie. Retrieved 7 January 2020.
  11. ↑ "FR PETER McVERRY". UCD Alumni Awards. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
  12. ↑ Pattison, Brynmor (18 May 2014). "Father Peter McVerry: "Tsunami of homelessness" threatening to wash over Ireland due to housing shortage". Archived from the original on 31 May 2014. Retrieved 31 May 2014.
  13. ↑ "Twenty Three Years of Jesuits in Ballymun by Michael O'Sullivan, S.J." Retrieved 9 June 2020.
  14. ↑ Connor, Dyane (26 September 2023). "Inspectors appointed to investigate Peter McVerry Trust". Retrieved 28 September 2023.
  15. ↑ Lyons, Tom (27 September 2023). ""Many and substantial" serious concerns: New letter reveals the "precarious situation" facing the Peter McVerry Trust". The Currency. Retrieved 28 September 2023.

Father Peter McVerry features on RTE tv in 1990 discussing the inadequacies of facilities for homeless boys in Ballymun

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