Residents of Dublin's south inner city gathered last night to take down the decorations from their Christmas tree. The 15-foot tree was a memorial to those from the area who had died as a result of drugs. Its decorations were photographs of the victims and messages of affection from their loved ones.
These, and the wreaths placed around the tree at the end of Pimlico, were then brought to St Catherine's Church in Meath Street for a memorial Mass.
One message was to their mother from two children, one of whom had never known her. "To Lilly. I never met you but I know I would have loved you. And I'll try and take care of Mark too. Love, Donna." Beneath a message from her brother: "Dear ma, I love you and miss you very much. From your ever-loving son Mark. My only regret is that you never met Donna. I know you would have loved her."
Another simple Mass card was addressed to Paul and Jacqueline Maguire, a couple whose six children now live with their grandmother.
The most recent drugs-related death in the area was also marked. Susan Hogan (26), who died of a heroin overdose on December 28th is remembered by "Rita, Arthur and family".
About 100 hundred parishioners attended the memorial Mass later. Also present were the governor of Mountjoy Prison, Mr John Lonergan, the Minister of State for the National Drugs Strategy, Mr Chris Flood, and Mr Pat Upton, local TD and Labour justice spokesman.
Father Tadhg Crowley, who said the Mass, asked parishioners "to remember those who had suffered from the abuse of drugs, and especially the families and friends of people who had died or who are sick" as a result of drugs.
The south inner city has seen several hundred of its young people die because of drugs abuse over the past five years, according to Mr Vincent Doherty, co-ordinator of the South Inner City Drugs Task Force. Its prevalence study of opiate abuse, to be published early this year, shows 17.5 per cent of the male 15-24 age group in the area have abused opiates, he said.
"The figure for Dublin as a whole is 2.1 per cent," he said. "There is still a huge concentration of opiate abuse in this area, and yet there's a perception that the problem has been dealt with."
