Peter McVerry

{{Short description|Irish priest and activist (born 1944)}} {{Use British English|date=September 2014}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2024}} {{Infobox Christian leader | type = Priest | honorific_prefix = | name = | honorific_suffix = SJ | title = | image = Peter McVerry SJ.jpg | alt = A grey-haired, clean-shaven white man in a collared shirt | caption = McVerry in 2014 | native_name = | native_name_lang = | church = | archdiocese = | province = | metropolis = | diocese = | see = | elected =  | term =  | quashed =  | predecessor = | successor = | opposed = | other_post = | previous_post =  | ordination = 1975 | ordained_by = | consecration = | consecrated_by = | cardinal = | created_cardinal_by = | rank = | laicized =  | birth_name =  | birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1944}} | birth_place = Belfast, Northern Ireland | death_date =  | death_place =  | death_cause =  | buried =  | resting_place_coordinates = | religion = Catholic Church | residence = | parents =  | spouse =  | children = | occupation = | profession = | education = | alma_mater = Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy | motto = | signature = | signature_alt = | coat_of_arms = | coat_of_arms_alt =  | feast_day = | venerated = | saint_title = | beatified_date = | beatified_place = | beatified_by = | canonized_date = | canonized_place = | canonized_by = | attributes = | patronage = | shrine = | suppressed_date =  | module = | module2 = | other = }}

'''Peter McVerry''' {{post-nominals|post-noms=SJ}} (born 1944) is an Irish Catholic priest and founder of the Peter McVerry Trust, which battles homelessness in Ireland.<ref name=JillyBeattie>[https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/pride-ireland-awards-homeless-campaigner-3642387 "'Pride of Ireland Awards': Homeless campaigner Fr Peter McVerry honoured with Lifetime Achievement Award"] by Jilly Beattie, ''Irish Mirror'', 4 June 2014; accessed 10 June 2014.</ref> According to one report, the Peter McVerry Trust helped 3,600 homeless people in Dublin in 2013.<ref>[https://www.thejournal.ie/mcverry-homeless-1462349-May2014 Peter McVerry Trust says there's been an increase in the number of homeless families], ''The Journal'', 13 May 2014; accessed 10 June 2014; "...THE PETER MCVERRY Trust helped almost 3,600 homeless people in Dublin last year, that's a 17 per cent increase on 2012...."</ref>

==Early years== Born in Belfast in 1944, McVerry grew up in Newry.<ref name=Gleeson/> He was educated by the Christian Brothers in Abbey Christian Brothers' Grammar School,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://pmvtrust.ie/about-us/fr-peter-mcverry/|title= Fr. McVerry Bio, About Us|access-date=2020-06-09}}</ref> and later attended Clongowes College. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1962.

He received a BSc in Chemistry (1968) and a Higher Diploma in Education (1996) from University College Dublin in 1963. He studied philosophy and theology in the Jesuit School of Theology in Milltown Park.

==Fighting homelessness== thumb|Jesuit community at Shangan, BallymunAfter his ordination as a priest in 1975, McVerry lived and worked in Summerhill, North Dublin. During these years he came face to face with the problem of homelessness and deprivation. He set up a trust to help struggling young people.<ref name=Gleeson>[http://www.dublinpeople.com/article.php?id=3701&l=100 "Our hero for life"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714205229/http://www.dublinpeople.com/article.php?id=3701&l=100 |date=14 July 2014 }} by Jack Gleeson, dublinpeople.com, 9 June 2014; accessed 10 June 2014, "...[Fr] McVerry was presented with his award by the Taoiseach Enda Kenny, at a glittering ceremony shown on TV3...."</ref> He first worked in Ballymun and the North Inner City during the 1970s when he found young homeless people in the streets.<ref name=Gleeson/><ref name="IrishmanAbroad">{{cite podcast |authorlink=Jarlath Regan |author=Jarlath Regan|edition=135 |work=An Irishman Abroad |title=Peter McVerry |publisher=SoundCloud |date=16 April 2016 |url=https://soundcloud.com/an-irishman-abroad/fatherpetermcverryepisode135 |accessdate=18 April 2016}}</ref> In 1983, he founded a charity to tackle homelessness called ''The Arrupe Society'' after Jesuit leader Pedro Arrupe, but it was subsequently renamed the Peter McVerry Trust, which began as a three-bedroom flat in Ballymun. {{Blockquote|We started working with young people and opened a youth club and a craft centre and then I came across a kid sleeping on the street aged nine-years-old ... We decided we better add a hostel to the services we were already running for young people so we opened a small hostel down in the inner city for six boys, as it was all boys then, there were no girls on the streets in the 1970s.|Fr Peter McVerry<ref name=Gleeson/>}}

The trust grew from one flat over the years, to include eleven homeless hostels, over 100 apartments, a residential drug detox centre and two drug stabilisation services. In 1979, he opened a hostel for young homeless boys aged between twelve and sixteen. He focused on those deemed too difficult to deal with by other agencies. McVerry recently opened a residential drug detox centre in County Dublin for homeless drug users. McVerry has lived in Ballymun since 1980. {{citation needed|date=June 2014}}

{{Blockquote|The homeless in Ireland are not a problem, they are simply people who have come upon difficult times and circumstances.|Fr Peter McVerry<ref name=JillyBeattie/>}}

In 2013, the charity worked with almost 3,600 vulnerable youths. There was controversy in 2014 when a candidate for political office used images of McVerry in campaign leaflets, and McVerry denied that he was endorsing any particular candidate.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20140714165110/http://www.herald.ie/news/fr-mcverry-i-did-not-endorse-candidate-30271701.html "Fr McVerry: ‘I did not endorse candidate’"], by Melanie Finn, '' The Herald'', 14 May 2014; accessed 10 June 2014, "...Fr Peter McVerry has echoed Brian O'Driscoll's comments in saying he is not endorsing any candidate who has used his image in election leaflets...."</ref> He appealed to the government to buy more housing for the homeless.<ref>[http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/father-peter-mcverry-tsunami-homelessness-3562012 Father Peter McVerry: "Tsunami of homelessness" threatening to wash over Ireland due to housing shortage"] by Brynmor Pattison, '' Irish Mirror'', 18 May 2014; accessed 10 June 2014, "...And he called on the Government to buy 1,500 houses and apartments to stave off the crisis. Fr McVerry said that this would be far more effective than temporary resolutions such as paying for hostels and shelters...."</ref> He advocated greater spending to help reduce inequality.<ref>[http://www.villagemagazine.ie/index.php/2014/06/fergus-finlay-interviewed-by-ken-cowley Fergus Finlay interviewed by Ken Cowley], villagemagazine.ie; accessed 10 June 2014, "...Peter McVerry said he'd gladly sit in a few traffic jams if a little of the money spent on infrastructure could be spent on inequality..."</ref> In 2014, he stated that the crisis of homelessness was threatening middle-class and working-class families.<ref>[https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/middleincome-families-caught-in-homeless-crisis-mcverry-30302097.html "Middle-income families caught in homeless crisis": McVerry], by Niamh Horan, ''The Independent'', 25 May 2014; accessed 10 June 2014.</ref>

In 2015, Trinity College Dublin awarded him with an honorary doctorate.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tcd.ie/registrar/honorary-degrees/2015-16/|title=Registrar : Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, Ireland|website=www.tcd.ie|access-date=2020-01-07}}</ref> The same year, he was awarded the UCD Alumni Award in Science.<ref>{{Cite web |title=FR PETER McVERRY |url=https://alumni.ucd.ie/awards/awardee/fr-peter-mcverry/ |access-date=2022-09-03 |website=UCD Alumni Awards |language=en-GB}}</ref>

==Peter McVerry Trust== thumb|Head office of the McVerry Trust at Mountjoy SquareThe '''Peter McVerry Trust''' (known previously as The '''Arrupe Society''') was founded in 1983 as a charity to reduce homelessness in Ireland.<ref name=IrishMirror1>{{cite news|last=Pattison|first=Brynmor|title=Father Peter McVerry: "Tsunami of homelessness" threatening to wash over Ireland due to housing shortage|url=http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/father-peter-mcverry-tsunami-homelessness-3562012|accessdate=31 May 2014|date=18 May 2014|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140531195255/http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/father-peter-mcverry-tsunami-homelessness-3562012|archivedate=31 May 2014}}</ref> The organisation was a continuation of work Fr. McVerry had been doing in Ballymun. The Arrupe Jesuit community in Ballymun involved itself directly with missionary work on the ground in one of Dublin’s poorest districts; working to scaffold community-building among socially disadvantaged people.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://homepage.eircom.net/~jadsj/23%20Years%20in%20Ballymun.htm|title= Twenty Three Years of Jesuits in Ballymun by Michael O'Sullivan, S.J. |access-date=2020-06-09}}</ref>

In 2023, the Approved Housing Bodies Regulatory Authority (AHBRA) appointed inspectors from Mazars to carry out a review of the financing and governance at the charity. Their findings indicated that the organisation was facing serious and immediate cash flow pressures.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Connor |first1=Dyane |title=Inspectors appointed to investigate Peter McVerry Trust |url=https://www.rte.ie/news/2023/0926/1407481-peter-mcverry-trust/ |access-date=28 September 2023 |language=en |date=26 September 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Lyons |first1=Tom |title=“Many and substantial” serious concerns: New letter reveals the “precarious situation” facing the Peter McVerry Trust |url=https://thecurrency.news/articles/129508/many-and-substantial-serious-concerns-new-letter-reveals-the-precarious-situation-facing-the-peter-mcverry-trust/ |website=The Currency |access-date=28 September 2023 |date=27 September 2023}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist|2}}

==External links== * [https://www.rte.ie/archives/2015/1022/736692-homeless-teenagers/ Father Peter McVerry features on RTE tv in 1990 discussing the inadequacies of facilities for homeless boys in Ballymun]

{{DEFAULTSORT:McVerry, Peter}} Category:Ballymun Category:Living people Category:1944 births Category:20th-century Irish Jesuits Category:21st-century Irish Jesuits Category:People from Newry Category:Alumni of University College Dublin Category:Alumni of Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy Category:Date of birth missing (living people) Category:Faculty of Belvedere College