Do locals in Dublin’s north inner city see signs of hope for the next Barry Keoghans?

Barry Keoghan’s acceptance speech at the British Academy Film and Television Awards (Bafta), in which he dedicated the supporting actor award for his role in The Banshees of Inisherin to the young people of his home area, Dublin’s north inner city, touched many there.

In his broad Dublin accent he accepted the award naming those important to him in that moment. “This is for my son as well, Brando, for my mother. And also, for the kids that are dreaming to be something, from the area that I came from: This is for yous.”

Keoghan, who grew up in the Summerhill area, was in 13 foster placements before living with his grandmother Patricia and aunt Lorraine. His mother, Debbie, died of a heroin overdose in 2003.

The speech was described as “deadly” by young boys in a youth diversion project; as providing a “platform of hope” by the Belvedere Youth Club (BYC) that a young Keoghan attended; and as “really inspirational” by another local hero, Olympic boxer Emmet Brennan (31).

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However, many working with young people in the area, while delighted for Keoghan, are sanguine about how much difference his success can really make in children and young people’s lives in the area.

Sarah Kelleher, director of the Lourdes Youth and Community Services, says “of course Barry’s story inspires people. He is a role model and that’s great. But the problem is, where are the role models in the area? Too many young people who succeed leave the area. This area has produced doctors, engineers, lawyers too, so many leave the area. Why do many successful people from this area not want to live here?”

The most recent deprivation index from the Pobal agency, and based on Census 2016, describes this part of the northeast inner city as “very disadvantaged” with male unemployment rates of 43-58 per cent. Up to 43 per cent of adults are recorded as having a primary school education only, and up to 88 per cent of families are headed by lone parents.

The locality has borne more media scrutiny than its fair share perhaps, over five decades. News outlets have pored over its heroin and Aids crises of the 1980s and 1990s, its ongoing poverty and, more recently, the Kinahan-Hutch gangland feud resulting in 18 deaths in different jurisdictions.

There is open drug dealing and consumption in the inner city area and some of the lowest quality housing in the State compounded by high levels of over-crowding and homelessness.

There’s a constant threat of violence. There’s a threat of intimidation by the guards. They could be stopped at any moment, humiliated at any moment, demeaned

—  David Cooney, project worker

David Cooney, who works with young people in the youth diversion project, the Hay project in Summerhill, says the area is “quite a traumatic place just to be in” for a young person. The projects sees 50-80 young people, between 8 and 18 years, annually.

“Stepping out of their door there’s robbed cars, there’s fights, there’s drug dealing, there’s addicts. There’s a constant threat of violence. There’s a threat of intimidation by the guards. They could be stopped at any moment, humiliated at any moment, demeaned. They 100 per cent do it back to the guards, but I am here to advocate for young people who are labelled, judged and scrutinised because of where they were born.

“That would all create a sense of hyper arousal and set off trauma triggers if they have experienced physical abuse, sexual abuse – or even a threat of abuse.

“For many of the young people I work with, their parents grew up in the same environment. They are products of it. There would be a high level of undiagnosed ADHD. There are all those traumas that would stop them progressing in education, make them highly vulnerable to antisocial behaviours.”

In the project on Thursday are Conor* (14) and Michael* (14). Conor started attending about three years ago following a referral through his school. Michael has attended since September after he was arrested for involvement in fights with large numbers of young people around Custom House Quay last summer.

People are doing stuff they don’t want to do, trying to impress people. Fighting, smoking. If you don’t do this you’re a faggot

—  Conor*, project participant

“Sometimes we’d cycle through Pearse Street, shouting, ‘F**k Pearse Street’ and ‘Up the northside’,” says Michael. “We’d catch them, with poles and knives and hammers. If you catch them, you batter them. If you get caught, you get battered. Some got stabbed in the head, the arm, but I never got caught.

“There were mostly about 40 of us. If you didn’t do it, you’d be called a faggot ‘n all. The chasing, the running and it was a bit of a laugh with your mates. I loved it, but not the getting arrested.”

Asked about the Hay project, Conor says: “It’s somewhere to chill out, talk to someone. We do a little sitting-in-a-circle thing, say how we are. Then we do our programme. Dave [Cooney] cooks us some food. People are different in here than they are outside. They calm down here. They don’t have to show off. They’re trying to be a hard man outside.”

Asked to explain, he continues: “It’s what life’s coming to. It’s getting out of hand... People are doing stuff they don’t want to do, trying to impress people. Fighting, smoking. ‘If you don’t do this you’re a faggot.’” Asked what he thinks of this, he says: “It’s bad out... Yeah, you do feel the pressure. People say stuff to you.

“It is hard being a kid. Everything is gone rough, a lot of people selling drugs. It’s not nice when you’re with your little brother.”

He agrees it could be tempting for young people to get involved with the drugs market. “It’s very tempting when it’s so easy to get money for so little time.”

Michael says he hates school. “Teachers are screaming at you. They just think you’re like posh people; that you’d like school. Some of the teachers are from Cork and posh. And you can’t sit still. I will leave when I’m 16. My ma says I’m not but I am.”

He enjoys using the DJ decks in the centre’s music studio. When he says he wouldn’t be able to make a career as a DJ, Cooney tells him he is “very good at it” and could. Michael would like to work in “something to do with sport”. Keoghan’s Bafta speech was “deadly”, says Conor. “It gives a good inspiration to kids.”

After they leave, Cooney says the boys “are great kids” and though young “have already seen a lot”.

“Our main goal here is to build trusting relationships with them. Yes, it is to divert them from the criminal justice system, but the relationship piece is key. It’s to foster a sense within them that they can cultivate a desire not to be the negative things they are threatening to become, to develop critical thinking about themselves, self-awareness.”

He is dubious about how much impact Keoghan’s success will have on some of the young people he works with. “Are those who need that inspiration most thinking about that Bafta speech? Probably not.”

Stressing he is not talking about Michael and Conor, he says: “The young person coming from drug addiction in the home, incarcerated parents, in and out of care, selling drugs – are they looking at Barry saying ‘I want to be that’ and changing their life? Maybe, but it would last half a second because everything else would crowd in and take over again.”

The Hay also supports the parents of the young people with whom it works. Linda Carroll, whose four sons have used it, says it has “saved” her life. Her twins (18) have ADHD and never got mental health services, she says. One of them was stabbed last year and had to relearn how to walk again.

The family of nine live in a three-bedroom house.

“There are gangs come down here and I am running them every night.” She has CCTV cameras on the front door.

“I love the mothers’ group. I live for it. It’s the chance for the six of us, in the same boat with our kids, to talk about our worries.”

No one grows up aiming to be involved in antisocial behaviour but unfortunately, living in the area of disadvantage there are more opportunities for that than there are to become a doctor or a pilot

—   Jenny Courtney., manager, Belvedere Youth Club

The nearby BYC is working with children probably more representative of their peers in the area. Last year it had 275 members, aged 7-24 years. “Lots of our young people are from very stable backgrounds with very hard-working parents,” says manager Jenny Courtney.

“Yes, there are greater challenges for children to overcome in this area. It is plagued with antisocial behaviour so you are constantly watching who they are hanging around with. No one grows up aiming to be involved in antisocial behaviour but unfortunately, living in the area of disadvantage there are more opportunities for that than there are to become a doctor or a pilot.

“The vast majority of young people just want to be kids in a safe place. And that is the essence of our work. There is so much, amazing talent in the young people of the north inner city. It’s about people believing you as a child, when maybe you can’t believe in yourself, and nurturing and supporting that development and foster talents that are there.”

The creative arts group, which is rehearsing for a production of High School Musical in May, faces closure in June as funding will run out. One of its teenage stars, who was initially reluctant to do drama classes, because “drama wasn’t cool” was “blown away by Barry’s speech” says Courtney.

“He came in here the next day and asked me: ‘Jenny, do you think I could be the next Barry Keoghan?’ To see Barry up there getting that award, knowing he grew up in the flats, that he has the same accent – that really, really resonates and provides a platform of hope.”

Brennan, who grew up around North Strand, is working towards turning professional. He lives at home with his parents, works part-time and spends all his free time training and coaching younger boxers.

“I’m looking at Barry winning the Bafta the other night and I’m waking up thinking, I’ve got to train. I’ve got to be the very, very best I can. It’s really inspirational to see that... You can have your own internal motivation but it’s great to have external as well. You’d take nothing but inspiration from that.”

The drug scene is running faster than any of us can keep up with. It is preying on children, destroying families

—  Sarah Kelleher, director of the Lourdes Youth and Community Youth Services

Boxing, which he got “hooked” on at age 10, helped him through mental health struggles in his mid-teens. He gave it up for a number of years in his early 20s but returned to it aged 25 “because I realised it was good for my mental health”.

“I often wonder what would have happened if I didn’t have the boxing club. What would I be doing and where would I have gone? It gave me discipline. It gave me independence. You’re in the ring on your own, fighting really for yourself. Your results are determined by what training you’ve done. But then you’re in a club, the coaches are there for you, and we all support each other. That is so important for a young person.

“Boxing is a working class sport. Still if you go into any boxing club in this area, a lot of them need to be renovated... The facilities aren’t great. You’d hope there would be more investment by Government in these facilities for working class kids. ”

Significant Government investment, in the wake of the 2015-2018 Kinahan-Hutch feud, is evident, in events, youth projects, the reopened Fitzgibbon Street Garda station and “greening” initiatives including the refurbishment of the Diamond Park on Gardiner Street.

Open drug dealing “is worse than I have ever seen it” however, says Kelleher. “The drug scene is running faster than any of us can keep up with. It is preying on children, destroying families. That has to be addressed if we want people to stay, to be the role models in the community and to build an attractive place for a sustainable community.”

* Names have been changed to protect their privacy