Civic society and politicians responsible for ensuring every child has a home - Mary McAleese

Vivienne Clarke

Former president Mary McAleese has said there was a responsibility on civic society as well as politicians to ensure every child had a home, not just a roof over their head.

Speaking following a Focus Ireland event in response to the Housing Plan, Ms McAleese told of her personal experience of being homeless when her family was “shot out” of their home in Belfast.

“I was then almost 20, the youngest brother was just a couple of years old. So the question then was, what do you do? We were fortunate that we had options, my mum is one of a family of 11, so we'd lots of aunts and uncles whom we could couch surf with.

“I suppose as children that maybe seems like a bit of an adventure, but the adventure palls, believe you me, my mother said, ‘who wants you with nine children?’ And for me the most important thing that comes back to me now as I look back over my longer life now is the impact it had on all of the other children in the family. No two reacted the same way.

“People adapt differently, they have a skill set that's different but most importantly there was an attitude around these times that because it's happening to children it doesn't really matter, they'll get over it, they didn't all. They did not all.

"My youngest brother by the time we got a new home together, a very small little home in a small, beautiful village, on our first Sunday there, I still remember sitting around the very cramped kitchen table, and my father asking him how he, my little brother Clement, how he was, and he said, ‘Daddy, I'm a very happy boy.’

“And I think of all the children who can say today I'm not happy. I'm not a happy boy, I'm not a happy girl. When will they be happy?

"Well, they'll be happy when we help to make them happy. And please God, we'll do that with the help of Focus Ireland, we'll do that with a mobilisation of civic society and political effort.

“We have the resources, you know, 'every child a home'. And not just a roof. Not a hub. Not a stopgap bed and breakfast. Important though these are, they are temporary, They are not home for every child at home.”