Sir, - I well remember John Waters's visit to North Clondalkin in November 1992 and the subsequent article he wrote. I well remember too my instinctive feeling that, for all his hand-wringing over the problems there, he would probably never refer to it again in his writings.
So indeed it turned out until his column of November 18th, in which his sole use for North Clondalkin was as fodder for a rant against Dick Spring. Nothing has changed there, he tells us, in the years Labour was in Government. I could readily and effortlessly catalogue the social problems of North Clondalkin that will require sustained public investment for decades to come.
But it is wildly untrue to suggest that nothing of value occurred in the past five years. Mr Waters need only refresh his memory of the specific demands placed before Mr Spring at the Rowlagh meeting he mentions. Many of these have been met. There are far more people at work in the area and many significant improvements to educational and social facilities.
There have been major reverses too, notably in relation to the drugs epidemic. A balanced view would recognise both successes and reverses. His sweeping "nothing has changed" generalisation about North Clondalkin dismisses, in one glib sentence, the fantastic efforts of teachers, clergy, community leaders, the local partnership company, Combat Poverty and community employment initiatives. All these have made great strides in the past five years despite near insuperable odds. In many cases, these efforts arise directly from the support structures for such local efforts put in place by Labour in the last Government.
However well meant, Mr Waters's efforts to cast Clondalkin and its citizens as hopeless victims robs this and similar communities of any recognition of their substantial achievements.
I might applaud his article if I felt it would loosen the public purse-strings further to direct further resources to North Clondalkin. In fact it is often the reverse that happens because every effort gets dismissed so haughtily as of no genuine significance, leaving those making the effort to despair further in the face of yet another mountain of bad press to climb.
The biggest commercial development in this booming economy is taking shape right now adjacent to North Clondalkin. The suggested football stadium to house the transfer of the Wimbledon team to Dublin is at the other end. Mr Waters would likely dismiss both of these as irrelevant to the needs of the people. That tells us a lot about him. - Yours, etc.,
From Joan Burton
(Labour Party, Dublin West), Old Cabra Rd, Dublin 7.