MICHAEL MACKEY was homeless and sleeping on the streets of Galway just over two years ago. Now he has his own home and has addressed conferences in Europe on homeless issues.
“I had been well in excess of over 20 years homeless and sleeping on the streets,” he said yesterday. “I was a late starter drinking and nothing went right for me after that. It was my own fault.”
He had several jobs and said some of them were good ones, but his struggles with alcohol overshadowed everything and he eventually found himself homeless. He found himself in a hopeless circle of drinking, being admitted to psychiatric hospitals, being released suffering from depression and going back drinking again.
People told him he would die if he didn’t stop drinking, but he said he was too tired and worn out to care.
In April 2007, “something snapped” when he was told he was being discharged from hospital yet again. “I don’t know what it was, but I said ‘it’s time to change’’’.
He was put in touch with Galway Simon Community and was offered a place in a supported house. Last November, the charity helped him to get his own apartment with Galway City Council.
“I got the chance of a lifetime and I’ve taken it. I’ve been able to turn my life around,” he said.
“Since last November, I’m leading an independent life and I’ve been to Brussels and I’ve been to Marseilles, speaking on homeless, trying to eradicate it, trying to push it aside.”
He has re-established contact with his grown-up children and has even conquered his addiction to cigarettes, which saw him smoking more than 100 a day.
He is also involved in planning a conference which will be held next year. It is being organised by homeless people to highlight their views on issues that affect them. He is on a national forum for people who use Simon services and has become a strong campaigner on the issue.
“When you see kids, children with their parents, coming to our day centre in Galway seeking help, that’s not a good sign,” he said. “That is bad.”
He praised the involvement of CRH in raising funds for Simon through its workplace safety challenge. “I hope that there will never be an accident in any of the projects CRH have because you have been so good, honest and decent to us.”
