‘I prefer them to be alive and shouting at me than dead from a drug overdose’, says needle exchange worker

Outreach worker Frank Horgan is on a mission to help Cork City’s heroin users to stay safe. Sarah Horgan joins him for a day

Frank Horgan, of the HSE Drugs Task Force, uses a litter picker to safely dispose of a syringe left under a bridge where users shoot up along the Mardyke Walkway in Cork City. Picture: Dan Linehan

IT’S A dismal Monday afternoon in Cork City, and a group of heroin users are gathering to score, jittery with anticipation.

The grim scene is one Frank Horgan has become all too accustomed to during his time as a needle exchange outreach worker in the city. Despite deaths and despair, overdoses, relapses, and readdiction, the HSE employee steadfastly refuses to give up on any of those he meets.