Mags GarganYoung people could get hurt imitating the characters in RTÉ’s crime drama
Young people could get hurt imitating the characters in RTÉ’s crime drama Love/Hate, a former Dublin gangland criminal told a church youth event last weekend.
Christy May was imprisoned in various levels of the penal system from the age of 10 to 25 and was involved in gangland warfare in Dublin until he found his faith.
He was speaking at the successful ‘Cork Youth Revival’ event last weekend hosted by the Dominicans’ One by One Ministries in conjunction with Youth 2000, NET Ministries and the Legion of Mary, with whom he now volunteers.
Close to the bone
“Love/Hate is very close to the bone. It’s terrible. They are a bunch of murderers and traitors killing all their friends and I know what that is like because I had friends killing each other. Fifteen of my friends were killed in the last 10 years,” he said. “They don’t show you the reality in Love/Hate. They glamorise it with the girls, the drugs, the fancy clothes and cars. They don’t show you that after a feud the next morning they are hiding under the duvet and they’re crying, there’s petrol bombs coming through the windows and their sister’s getting attacked or they are living in their attic while their family is downstairs. They don’t show you how scary it is.”
Help the youth
“Being in a feud is like having a tattoo, it is very hard to get away from. I think RTÉ should be showing better programmes, something that will help the youth, because in Dublin all the young kids are taking on the Love/Hate characters, they think it’s great, and young people could die because of this programme,” he said.
Up to 800 young people came to St Peter and Paul’s Church in Cork on Saturday night to light a candle and pray at a Nightfever event. On Sunday evening about 300 people attended St Mary’s Church on Pope’s Quay to hear music, prayer and testimony.
The talks were followed by adoration and confession with six priests spending 1.5 hours offering the Sacrament of Reconciliation.ssion with six priests spending 1.5 hours offering the Sacrament of Reconciliation.