Mags GarganMags Gargan meets volunteers working in homeless hostels run by the Legion of Mary in Dublin
It’s a cold, wet evening and the phone in the office of the Regina Coeli Hostel for homeless women is ringing every few minutes, often accompanied by a buzz of the doorbell. Hearing about the homelessness crisis in Dublin is one thing, but seeing it in action is another.
It is starting to get dark, the rain is not expected to stop and these women are desperate to get off the streets. However, the 39 beds available in the Regina Coeli Hostel are already taken and it is heart-breaking for the volunteers to turn people away.
“What can we do?” asks daytime manager, Eileen Ryan. “This year we are full the whole time. I have never seen it as busy as this year.”
Next door, the 63 beds in the Morning Star Hostel for homeless men are also full most of the year. “If a bed becomes available we will tell the guys who regularly contact us there is a bed coming up and it is snapped up,” says assistant manager, Willie Burke. “The homeless situation is very bad at the moment. So I think if you had 200 beds here they would be full. It is terrible out there now for the homeless.
Sleeping bag
“The lads tell us that if they ring the Homeless Agency and there are no beds available they are just given a sleeping bag. So 40-50 people every night are just getting a sleeping bag and told to look after themselves.”
The two hostels are run by the Legion of Mary, a lay apostolic association founded by Frank Duff in Dublin. The Morning Star was opened in 1927 and the Regina Coeli followed in 1930 in answer to the terrible poverty in Dublin at the time. Both have remained opened every day since.
The Morning Star originally housed over 200 men packed in beds lining large dormitories and the Regina Coeli could take 70 including mothers with young children and expectant single mothers. However, renovations to bring the two hostels up to health and safety standards means that both services can now facilitate less people, but in much better conditions.
“Two years ago, the Regina Coeli was done up. Two rooms were turned into one, so they are quite spacious now. The units have gone into disrepair, so we can’t take mothers and children,” Eileen says.
“We offer more long-term accommodation, but we encourage them to go on to independent living. That is more difficult now with the housing crisis. We have one lady who has been coming here on and off over 40 years. Some of the ladies say they wouldn’t stay in any other hostel.”
The refurbishment of the Morning Star began in 2007 and was finished at the start of this year. It has a modern kitchen with fire doors, a games room with three full size snooker tables, pool table and table tennis table and TV rooms.
When The Irish Catholic comes to visit there are two transition year students from St Paul’s School, Alan McKenna and Luke Smith, mopping the floors of the TV rooms as part of a work experience programme.
Out in the garden, Legionary Kevin Moffat, an electrician by trade, is installing lights for a beautiful grotto, newly built by Legionary Brian Byrne, a stone mason. The statue of Our Lady and the baby Jesus was a donation from one of the sisters in the Regina Coeli. Another brother who is a landscape gardener will supply all the garden plants and the pond has a number of goldfish. A Men’s Shed is also being set up nearby to give the men something constructive to do with their time during the day.
The four dorms in the Morning Star now hold 17 beds in separate cubicles and each one has a locker, hand basin, small wardrobe and radiator. The dorms are large, bright and warm, and give a balance of privacy while also making sure if someone is struggling or feeling sick the other men can keep an eye on them.
“It’s what every hostel should be like. Who wants to be sitting on top of each other? We all like to have a bit of space and it gives them a better quality of life,” says manager, Dave Moroney.
The Morning Star also supports a number of men who ended up on the streets after psychiatric care facilities such as St Brendan’s Hospital closed down. “We work with the psychiatric service in Ushers Quay and any lads we get that we think might need help we bring them there. It’s generally very good for these guys to be mixing with people and they all look after each other here. But the place is so big that if they need to find a space with a bit of peace and quiet they can,” Willie says.
Both hostels serve breakfast and an evening meal, and offer a laundry service. There is daily Mass in the hostel chapels. No alcohol or drugs are allowed in either hostel. They rely completely on volunteers for cooking, cleaning and administration. You don’t have to be a member of the Legion of Mary to volunteer, but it is members of the local praesidiums which make up most of the volunteers.
In the Morning Star, seven ‘indoor brothers’, including Willie and Dave, live at the hostel full-time in simple rooms. “We usually start around 7am and finish up around 11.30pm, five days a week. In the afternoon we have a couple of hours off. It’s worth it – it keeps me on the straight and narrow,” Willie says. “I get great enjoyment and fulfilment out of the work. It is very positive.”
“I like the atmosphere,” Dave says. “With all its struggles, and ups and downs, it is a place of grace.”
Teresa Treacy has been volunteering with Regina Coeli for 12 years. She was in the Legion when she was young and came back after her husband died. “You get more out of it than you put in. I think it is spiritual. Helping others, you feel you are doing some good. We are all on the one wavelength, there is a great sense of comradery and we have a very nice praesidium,” she says.
Eileen Ryan came to the hostel in 2010 as a part-time volunteer a few hours a week and then in 2011 she was asked to help one day a week “and somehow that became five days a week”. “It is very challenging but there is a great atmosphere among the staff. We are all there to support each other,” she says.
Currently there are two teenage girls living in the hostel, volunteering during their gap year while they decide on college next year.
Maria Stephanie is from Latvia and heard about the hostel from a previous volunteer. “It is amazing,” she says. “It is a great experience. You meet really nice people and learn a lot about life.
“It is hard to explain what we do here because on the one hand you are cooking and cleaning and just doing regular things but on the other hand, there are so many stories, so many personalities, so many moments sitting and chatting. You can’t really explain what happens between these walls.”
Aoife O’Hara heard about the hostel from her uncle Fr Emmet O’Hara. “I love it here. It’s like a home away from home. It’s like a family,” she says.
“The residents are so nice, and even though they have hard times they are concerned for you too. Just because they are addicted to drugs or alcohol, that doesn’t make them a bad person. You learn to appreciate life here.”
Maria says she has learned that “homeless people are the same as us”. “They had families and a house and car, and it can happen in just one day. You can see the real person and not just their status in life. You also see what drugs and alcohol can do to a person’s life.”
Teresa says it is lovely to have young people at the hostel and she would love to see more volunteer. “Some of the residents could have daughters that age. I think the more young people we can get in the better. We are like their mothers and grandmothers. The young are great. If girls could come before college, we wold love if they could give us some time. It would be good for them and good for us,” she says.
Willie says the men’s hostel is also “always looking for volunteers”.
Both hostels are now preparing for Christmas, which can be a very difficult time for people who have no home or family to share the celebrations with. “We serve a Christmas meal during the day for the men who don’t have somewhere to go and then a meal in the evening,” Willie says. “We have turkey and ham and make a big fuss of them. We have decorations, a Christmas tree and a crib. We try and get into the spirit of the season.”
Eileen says the women who stay at the Regina Coeli at Christmas “can feel sad because they see the others go home to stay with their families, so the staff try and make it as nice as possible for them”. She says some volunteers sacrifice their own Christmas, coming up from the country to spend Christmas working at the hostel.
Eileen says working at the hostel shows you both the good and the bad in human nature. “We see the mistakes people make and how it can become a vicious cycle and it can be hard to motivate them to break that cycle. Sometimes it is only prayer that can help.
“We are here to listen to them and that is really important here that we give time to listen to their stories and concerns because they sometimes feel that nobody listens to them or wants them. So I think that is a big part of our work here, just listening to them, even if it is the same story again and again, just to give them the human respect that they feel they don’t get out in the world.”
If you are interested in volunteering with the Regina Coeli women’s hostel contact 01-872 3142 or for the Morning Star men’s hostel contact 01-872 3401.