A High Court judge has hailed a "shocking book" by a recovered drug addict which details the dangers of drug use.
Mr Justice Paul Carney said The Miracle of Fatima Mansions by Shay Byrne, which describes the consequences of taking drugs and the daily life of an addict was "very tough stuff indeed".
Mr Byrne became addicted to drugs as a teenager after the death of his father Jim in the 1970s. He began his recovery after he was stabbed in Fatima Mansions, a flat complex in south inner city Dublin.
Speaking at the launch of the book in Dublin yesterday, Mr Justice Carney, who is a judge of the High Court, said Mr Byrne had been stabbed in a "turf war which he had nothing to do with and which he knew nothing about". "He survived in the first instance being stabbed to within an inch of his life and the second part of the miracle is the manner in which he has pulled himself out of the life he fell into," Mr Justice Carney said. "It's a shocking book in what it describes as the consequences of getting involved with drugs."
The preface to the book refers to comments made by Mr Justice Carney during sentencing at a trial investigating the death of Joseph Sutcliffe two years ago, at which he said he was "haunted" by conditions in the "cruelly named Fatima Mansions".
Following the remarks, he was invited by residents to visit the area to see the changes that had been made since the death of Mr Sutcliffe in 2002. He said he had been there on a number of occasions since, and that the work of the Fatima Regeneration Board in transforming the area had been "quite remarkable".
Mr Byrne (55), who now works as an English teacher in Germany, called on Dubliners to rid the city of drug dealers. There was a gang war going on in his area and a young girl was nearly gunned down on her way to do her Junior Cert last week, he said.
"There have been eight murders and it's happening all over the city," he said. "I think it's time that the citizens of Dublin decided to take their city back. And I think [ they] have the ability to take their city back. They should show no fear."