The audience joins in the chorus of the song I Don’t Want to Talk About It as a group of musicians leads with the lyrics “I don’t want to talk about it; how you broke my heart; If I stay here just a little bit longer: If I stay here, won’t you listen to my heart?”
The Crazy Horse song – made famous by Rod Stewart in 1975 – is the closing number of what has been a tremendous outpouring of creativity by members of the Gateway peer-led mental health project at the New Theatre in Dublin to celebrate that organisation’s 20th anniversary.
The performers and many in the audience are members of the Rathmines-based drop-in centre. And everyone is here to support the launch of the book, Straight From Our Heart, a compilation of art, music, poetry and prose, created by members of Gateway during various workshops.
John Kelly, co-ordinator of Gateway, says the key to the longevity of the project is how it fosters the use of creativity for members to discover or rediscover themselves. “It allows people to step back into themselves. At Gateway, nobody ever asks about people’s diagnosis. We ask: what are you interested in? And how can we help you with that?” The focus is on tapping into the soothing power of creative group activities.
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Kelly says that people with enduring mental health difficulties often experience an “othering, a loss of community, a loss of sense of identity and a loss of purpose”.
“My own interest in getting involved was because I didn’t want to just cope, I wanted to thrive,” explains Kelly, who was diagnosed with a serious mental health condition in the late 1990s but says that it is not something he identifies with now.
“I’ve recovered,” he says, while acknowledging that recovery means different things to different people. “It is about having a sense of self and a sense of purpose. People might still experience symptoms but they aren’t defined by these symptoms,” he explains.
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The 570 members of Gateway are mainly in their 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s, and while each person has had a different life experience, they share a deeply felt understanding of what it’s like to suffer from mental health problems for long periods of time. All of the staff and volunteers at Gateway have or have had a lived experience of mental illness.
The sense of warmth and support between members of Gateway is palpable at the New Theatre event and those we speak with are keen to acknowledge the compassion they feel towards each other.
‘It’s a pleasure and privilege to do this work. We energise each other. I love Gateway deeply and these people are my family’
— James Fagan, part-time Gateway worker
“Gateway opened doors for me. It gives us space to find our feet. It’s a landing spot to figure things out and hear from other people. There is learning from what others have been through,” explains Niamh Brunell, who has been involved with Gateway for a number of years.
Mags O’Sullivan, who was one of the musicians on stage earlier, says that being part of Gateway has given her the confidence to speak out about her mental health issues. “It helps me to use my voice and have my opinions validated,” she says.
Bren O’Doherty, another musician, who has also contributed art and poetry to Straight From Our Heart, says Gateway has given him a sense of belonging. “I’ve experienced joy, education and enlightenment, empowerment, compassion and transparency, but mainly joy,” he says.
“You feel the vibe the minute you come in the door. Everybody says ‘Hello’. We’re all on the same page. And it makes life easier to find somebody worse off or as badly off as yourself,” he adds.
James Fagan started working at Gateway part-time six years ago. “I listen when someone speaks to me. I’ll support them with love, compassion, kindness and understanding,” he explains.
“It’s a pleasure and privilege to do this work. We energise each other. I love Gateway deeply and these people are my family,” he adds.
‘Relationship is at the centre of peer-led groups, which give people safe nurturing spaces to grow and learn without worrying about judgment’
— Prof Agnes Higgins, School of Nursing, Trinity College Dublin
Kelly says that professional mental health services have improved over the last 10 years in terms of becoming more person-centred – not least because of increasing prominence of the so-called recovery movement, which Gateway belongs to.
This approach, which often runs in parallel with recovery colleges offering life skills and other programmes, is led by people with lived experience of mental health challenges who want to live satisfying, hopeful lives while accepting the limitations of their illnesses in some cases. In some academic circles, the lived experience has been integrated into research as a valid form of knowledge in the education of mental health professionals.
Gateway was set up around the same time as other peer-led mental health projects in the early 2000s but, unlike many others, it is one of the few that has survived through HSE funding via Mental Health Ireland. The organisation is currently seeking charitable status.
Kelly estimates that about half of new members dropping into Gateway have been or are currently homeless. “Gateway started off one evening a week in a parish hall in Rathmines because there were loads of people living alone in what was then flatland. Now, every second person who joins is living in a hostel or is homeless, and this is a welcoming space for them,” he explains.
He explains his own first encounter with the project. “I came to Gateway as a community development student to create change and I was blown away by the welcome. I’ve met so many people and I’ve had it easy compared to some people who have experienced homelessness and traumatic upbringings,” says Kelly.
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Prof Agnes Higgins, professor of mental health at the School of Nursing at Trinity College Dublin, says that peer-led organisations can make significant contributions to people’s lives and wellbeing. “They are strengths-orientated rather than problem-orientated and they don’t see people within a diagnostic paradigm.
“Relationship is at the centre of peer-led groups, which give people safe nurturing spaces to grow and learn without worrying about judgment. It’s about supporting people to live their best lives,” she says. Prof Higgins suggests that peer support encounters less challenges to the peer role within peer-led standalone projects. “When peer support workers are within the mainstream mental health services, their voice can get lost in the sea of mental health professional perspectives,” she adds.
In January 2025 as part of the First Fortnight mental health, arts and culture festival, Gateway will launch a six-part podcast entitled The Gateway Patchwork Quilt. The podcasts will trace the journeys members took before arriving at Gateway, as well as looking at the 20-year history of the project itself. See firstfortnight.ie. Gateway can be contacted on 01-4977005 or info@gatewaymha.com
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