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Fr. Peter McVerry is a name known across Ireland for his tireless work with those society often forgets - the homeless, the addicted, the vulnerable. But before all of that, he was a young boy in Newry, shaped by a close-knit community and a family built on compassion.
A Journey That Chose Him
“I remember seeing a wee lad, not more than nine, wandering the streets with no place to go. And I just thought… I can’t walk past this.” “It wasn’t some big idea. There was no five-year plan. It all just… unfolded. If a new service was needed, we set it up. Month by month.”
Today, the Peter McVerry Trust, founded by Peter himself, holds over 600 homes, each one a permanent place for someone who once had nowhere. There are detox centres for those struggling with addiction, and small schools that help students who had dropped out or been pushed aside. “They arrive thinking they’re no good. But 95% of them leave with their exams passed. You give young people a fair shot and they take it.”
What began in a cramped flat on Summerhill Street in Dublin has grown into one of Ireland’s most respected social justice organisations, but Fr. McVerry still traces it back to the values he learned walking the streets of Newry, where neighbours looked out for each other, doors were left unlocked, and kindness was a currency as real as money.
The Town That Formed Him
Fr. McVerry’s early years in Newry laid the foundation for everything that came after. His father, a well-liked local doctor at the time, would often be called out in the dead of night to visit patients across the city from the Mourneview estate to rural homes out near Bessbrook, no complaints, no hesitation. “He just did it. No fuss.” From his mother came his deep sense of faith quiet, strong, lived. Sunday Mass at the Cathedral of Saints Patrick and Colman was a family constant, and community life revolved around the parish.
At twelve, he was sent to a Jesuit boarding school, where the idea of becoming a priest began to take root. “I didn’t want to live a life just for myself. I wanted to do something for others.” That mix of compassion and conviction half learned at home, half through faith would guide every choice he made. After his ordination, Peter was sent to a poorer part of Dublin and ended up in Summerhill Street. “It was rough no doubt, rats, damp walls, the lot. But the welcome… that made it home.” The same instinct that drove his father to open the front door at midnight drove him to open his own to those sleeping rough.
Why He Keeps Going
“Sometimes you meet someone again, years later. They’ve a steady job now, a wee house, maybe even a family. And you think, aye, we got something right there.” That’s the heart of his work: quiet, human, lasting. Not headlines. Not big speeches. Just helping people live again. He still visits Newry when he can, often quietly, and says the welcome from locals always feels the same. “You can take the man out of Newry, but you can’t take Newry out of the man.” When asked how ordinary people can help? “Treat homeless people the same as anyone else. With the same level of respect and decency. That’s where it starts.” It’s advice born not of theory, but of the same street sense and humanity that shaped his boyhood.
What Comes Next
Even now, Fr. McVerry hasn’t slowed down. “There’s always something new that needs doing. You don’t retire from compassion.” Legacy isn’t something he talks much about. But his advice to young people is simple and clear. “Don’t wait around for permission to do good. Just get stuck in. One step at a time you’ll work the rest out.” It’s a message that echoes through classrooms, community halls, and parish centres across Ireland and perhaps most of all, back home in Newry, where a young boy once learned that service, when done quietly, can change lives louder than words ever could.
Note: This is part of a Public Interest News Foundation project, funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, that gave local students the opportunity to write for a local news outlet. Author Joseph Linden is a pupil of St Colman's Grammar School. See: Teen Journalist Impresses With Interviews of Newry Greats
