Heroin in Kerry: 'They want to pretend it's not happening'
'Watch your step': HSE needle exchange worker for Cork and Kerry Frank Horgan brought reporter Sarah Horgan to see some areas in Tralee blighted by heroin use. Pictures: Domnick Walsh
As the summer sun shines brightly over Tralee, there is a growing number of people trapped in the dark clutches of addiction, shooting up everywhere from under walkways to behind hedges.
The clear day sheds light on an inconvenient truth in the town which Frank Horgan is all too familiar with. A number of years ago, the HSE South West’s needle exchange worker was told by authorities that “Tralee didn’t have a drug problem”.
They now welcome his input, after seeing the difference it makes to people’s lives.
It’s the beginning of Frank’s shift and a fresh pile of casually-disposed needles, foil, spoons, and crack pipes lie in wait for us at Pearse Park.
“Watch your step,” he warns me.
Frank’s steely demeanor reflects his determination. He is not just here to clean up needles and issue safe and sterile injecting equipment. Helping people back into recovery is a key part of the Cork native’s role.
It’s a merciful time of year as the winter bite has long thawed, making his working conditions less gruelling.
It gives Frank more time to meet and chat with drug users, many of whom have become like friends.
After leaving the park, he bumps into one of his regulars, Jimmy (not his real name) who is sporting a new pair of blue runners.
“I ordered them from Shein,” he tells us proudly. “They were only €10.”
Despite his milky-white pallor, Jimmy looks markedly more healthy than in previous weeks.
“I see a change in you,” Frank says, holding back tears. “You look really well.”
The surface joviality and banter, however, conceals a painful truth.
While Jimmy might look well, his drug use has robbed him of so much, most poignantly his son, now eight, who lives with his mum.
“I’ve never seen him,” he tells me, “but one day I will.”
He says he is “off the heroin, but still smoking cannabis at night and doing coke at weekends”.
The 35-year-old, who is currently taking part in an opioid substitution programme, insists he no longer shoplifts to feed his addiction.
Speaking about his crimes, he tells the : “I have 58 convictions and one of them is for a leg of lamb. Can you believe that?” he laughs. “People ordered from me all the time and lamb is one of the things that has gone very expensive.
"It would nearly be easier now to go up to the Conor Pass and get a full sheep.
“There were people asking me if I could get them steaks as well. I stole perfume for €150 and got €25 for it just to get me a bag of heroin. Because of this I’m not allowed in some shops.
"The hardest part was when I went into a store with my mum and they wouldn’t let me past the door.
"I was so ashamed of myself but also heartbroken for my mum.
Jimmy’s drug use began when he was still a teenager.
“I was 16 and curious about the boys smoking hash at lunchtime. The boys heard of Xanax and I knew my mum had some. I stole five and gave the other five to the boys.
"Heroin came after the tablets. I only experienced that real high the first time. I’ve been chasing it since. It’s been 15 years and I still can’t get it.”
He often wonders what a life without drugs might have looked like.
“I think of my son on his first day of school and the mums and dads dropping their kids off while I was in a prison cell.
“I didn’t think of this when I was stoned off my head. It’s different now. I want to go to St Francis Farm in Carlow to detox. My mum sees my son every three weeks but I will get myself right so that I can see him too.”
Jimmy now lives in a hostel, where he is highly regarded by staff.
“The Simon had me in a flat before. I pretended I wasn’t using but when they came in they found 22 needles in cupboards, couches, and anywhere else I could hide them. Drugs take so much from you. They have taken my health and put me in debt.
"Drugs have taken my life.”
Our next port of call is a meeting with clinical nurse manager Geraldine O’Rourke at the HSE South’s nearby primary care centre.
She works in addiction services and, with the support of her team, has helped many drug users on the road to recovery.
“We have had so many success stories that it’s hard to think of just one,” she says.
“I can remember one man who spoke about his full-circle moment after overcoming addiction. He was living with his mother and she asked if he could go to the shop for her.
"He offered to bring in her purse and she asked him to take €10 out of it. As he was taking out the money he started crying. He couldn’t believe his mum trusted him to take that tenner.”
She said Frank Horgan’s visits have been hugely beneficial for the organisation.
“Frank builds up trust with people from the start,” she says. “If a person goes missing he keeps an eye out for them and encourages them to come back to us.
“Nobody is in addiction by choice. For people who are coming out of the spiral and seeing their life and reality clearly for the first time it can be completely crushing.“
Next up is a local apartment complex which has become a hotspot for heroin use.
There is a growing sense of disquiet on arrival.
One of the residents, Richard Roche, says he is desperate to protect his seven-year-old son from the illicit activity.
“One day I had to lift him over someone who was sleeping. I’m still waiting for my front door to be fixed because it’s been kicked in so many times by people looking for the apartments of other residents.
“My partner is pregnant and she’s due in December. We’re not sure what to do.
“Recently, I went out to get a takeaway and the door was blocked by a man holding up a cooker for his heroin. How do you protect your child from that? There is another family on the first floor and they have four children.”
He said drug users make few attempts to conceal their habit.
“We are seeing people randomly walking up and down the stairs with massive bags, brimming with drug paraphernalia.
We conclude the working day with a visit to Novas, a hostel offering temporary accommodation to those in need.
Project manager Marilyn O’Shea, who is there to greet us, speaks about the training that Frank provides in relation to Naloxone. The medication was introduced to reverse drug overdoses and is used widely by those in homeless services.
“He has a great way about him,” Marilyn says. “He’s very down to earth and the lads appreciate that.
“We are trained in Naloxone a couple of years now. It saves lives and we use it on a regular basis. It could be administered by myself or another member of staff.
“Of course you are nervous. The first time doing anything like this you are going to be nervous.
"The reactions from people who need it are not always good.
"Sometimes they are not happy. Overall, though, they take it on board. They know it’s there.
“They are thankful for it because it is a safety measure for them.”
Every minor breakthrough is a victory for Frank.
“It was hard at first because gardaí in Tralee weren’t really open to it,” he says of the needle exchange programme. “One of them told me that they didn’t have the same problem as we do in Cork.
“I pulled away and came back about a year and a half ago, this time to another garda.
"He took me in and told me: ‘We have a problem here.’
"I got linked in with the community gardaí in Killarney and Listowel too and told them that if an issue arose there was someone they could contact.
"If you go to Killarney it’s not discussed at all.
"People don’t want to talk about it because of the impact it might have on tourism.
"They want to pretend it’s not happening.”
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