In Dublin, the Parents Are Pushing Out Drug Pushers

Drug dealers who once stalked Dublin housing projects today are being chased out by vigilante parent patrols--with a little backing from Sinn Fein, the political wing of the outlawed Irish Republican Army.

“The pushers were incredibly bold,” said a resident of one of the drug-blighted areas. “It was a terrible scene for parents. They saw their children introduced to hard drug use right before their eyes.”

Angry and frustrated when authorities failed to control the problem, parents initiated actions of their own.

Within months, their spontaneous response had evolved into a neighborhood network called Concerned Parents. Today it is more than 1,000 strong with 20 separate neighborhood units and a coordinating central committee.

Dealers Evicted

In its early days, Concerned Parents functioned much like any protest group. But soon parents with walkie-talkies were patrolling neighborhoods and marching on the dwellings and recreational haunts of pushers.

Many dealers were literally evicted, sometimes through physical force, more often through verbal--but not gentle--persuasion.

“It was frightening at first,” said Tony O’Flaherty, secretary of the Concerned Parents central committee.

“We were dealing with tough characters. Some were armed and a lot were dangerous. Some were addicts themselves. But as more and more people joined us, we got more courageous.”

Involved Sinn Fein

Courage-building clout came from a controversial but strikingly effective quarter during its earliest forays--Sinn Fein.

A minor political party in the Irish republic, Sinn Fein was but one of the organizations approached by Concerned Parents--but quicker than most to respond--in a bid for community aid.

“Community service has always been part of our platform,” said Brian MacDonald, information officer at the party’s headquarters in Dublin. “It seemed natural for us.

“Our connection with the IRA was a plus,” he said. “The parents knew they might encounter violent resistance. Our rough-and-ready image would counter that.”

Pressure Applied

Aside from a few masked and armed raids--”hyped out of proportion in some local media accounts,” according to MacDonald--the marches and evictions were largely nonviolent. Pressure was applied through sit-ins and “general harassment,” MacDonald said.

Not everyone endorses the Sinn Fein involvement. Some Dubliners contend that it has given the Concerned Parents movement an “overly militant name.” And the IRA connection makes it difficult to raise funds from the community at large, O’Flaherty acknowledged.

“But forget politics,” he said. “Drugs are the enemy. Anyone against them is on our side.”

Others are critical of the parents’ crusade for other reasons. Ridding deprived neighborhoods of pushers only drives them into more prosperous residential areas, they claim.

‘Pushers Had to Go’

While significant statistics are not yet available from places like the Jervis Street Drug Center, the national drug treatment facility, some local rehabilitation workers say they think the once-mushrooming addiction problem in Dublin has “at least been contained” since the first parents groups were formed in 1983 and 1984.

“The pushers had to go first,” said O’Flaherty. “There was no hope of beating the addiction problem until we got rid of them.”

Many of the notorious pushers are either serving jail sentences or awaiting trial.

Testimony that the drug mentality that once pervaded their neighborhoods has diminished comes from inner-city youths themselves, reflected in the graffiti they scrawl on garden walls and empty storefronts.

Unlike the political graffiti that can be found elsewhere in Ireland, it is confined to just two words:

“Pushers Out.”