“After the tour, if anyone wants to go look at his head, it’s preserved in a shrine inside the church,” said Luke Kelly, a tour guide with My Streets Drogheda, which trains homeless or recently resettled people to work as tour guides in the Co Louth town.
We were standing outside St Peter’s Church, the first stop on the walking tour, and Kelly was referring to the head of St Oliver Plunkett.
My Streets is run by Drogheda Civic Trust and Drogheda Homeless Aid, a service for homeless men that includes a hostel in which many of the tour guides have lived.
One of them is Kelly. Originally from Dunboyne, Co Meath, he went into hospital in 2002 and had no place to go when he got out. He lived in the hostel for three years and in a resettlement home for three years after that. Now he has his own apartment in town and is “doing great”.
“I find the tours very exciting, and I love giving them. It’s really built up my self-esteem and self-worth that I’m productive now and doing something. I’m employed part-time doing it. So it’s fantastic. It’s amazing, really,” he said.
One of the highlights of the tour is St Laurence’s Gate, built in the 13th century as part of the town’s walled fortification. A road now runs under the gate, considered one of the finest of its kind in Europe.
Harry Clarke stained glass
Kelly minded the group as we crossed the road and headed to St Augustine’s Church to admire the beautiful stained glass work of artist Harry Clarke.
Then it was down the back lanes, where he pointed out hinges in the stone walls of Rosemary’s Lane, where gates used to sit at either end.
“The reason being the ladies of the night used to come and frequent here at night time. The two gates were either to keep them in or keep them out,” he said.
The project has eight tour guides who have had months of training, including weekly lectures from local historian and former mayor Seán Collins. Local gardaí talked to the group about safe paths through town, and volunteers gave them advice on public speaking and confidence.
“When some of the lads came in, their confidence was very low,” said Austin Campbell, resettlement officer at Drogheda Homeless Aid.
He is running the programme with Alan Costello of Drogheda Civic Trust, who got the idea when he saw something similar on a trip to Canterbury. There are projects like it in Prague, London, Barcelona and Berlin.
Campbell said the opening weekend over the May bank holiday went well. “The tourists loved it. It was fully booked in spite of the bad weather.”
He hopes the social enterprise, initially funded by State Street and the Louth Meath Education and Training Board, becomes self-sufficient when the tours are in full swing. He wants it to be a business, not a charity.
If it succeeds, the idea could expand to other towns and cities across Ireland.
“There is the potential of funding through Social Entrepreneurs Ireland, so I think it could be done in any town with a sizeable homeless population and a homeless organisation – Cork, Dublin, Waterford, Galway.”
The tours are on every Saturday and cost €5 per person. Half of the proceeds pay the guide and the other half are put towards running costs.
Further information is available at mystreetsdrogheda.com or the group’s Facebook page.
