An information evening will take place in the Co Fermanagh village of Donagh on Saturday in an effort to tackle drugs and other social issues in the community.
Speaking at the event will be Newtownbutler native Fr Gary Donegan, who now works in Ardoyne, North Belfast and has first-hand experience of dealing with such issues in his parish.
The event has been organised by the Donagh Community Forum, in partnership with local schools, sporting and community organisations.
Fr Donegan will make a presentation and discuss with local residents how to combat issues related to drugs, alcohol and mental health in local communities.
“I was born and reared in Newtownbutler, and I was contacted a while back there as there was a lot of concern about young people and mental health, and the amount of time young people have on their hands,” Fr Gary told MyFermanagh.
“There is a concern of an ever growing issue, despite the rural nature of the area of drugs.
“It’s about how you collectively tackle that as a society and that’s basically what they want me to talk about.
“I have seen the effects of that in most recent times, and we have had the loss of young people.
“The community thought that here is someone at the coalface of this, and they haven’t been exposed to it in the same numbers, but they are not naive to the fact that it is an issue. It’s endemic within society.”
Pauline O’Reilly from the Donagh Community Forum said it was a good opportunity to learn from the priest’s experience and apply it to issues in the village.
“It has come about just because like everywhere else in Northern Ireland, there are issues related to drugs, mental health, suicide and different aspects like that,” Pauline said.
“As much as there are public meetings elsewhere, it’s hard to beat your own community and although we are a small community there are a lot of rural areas nearby as well.
“So we wanted to come together to see how we can tackle issues before they get out of hand.
“We thought the best thing to do was to start educating ourselves, and with Fr Gary’s experience we thought it was a good opportunity to give a public talk that anyone can go to.”
Encouraging those in the local community to attend the event, Sinn Fein MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, Michelle Gildernew, said Co Fermanagh was ‘awash’ with drugs and local people needed to educate their young people.
“Fermanagh is awash with illegal substances and those who are distributing these substances have no qualms in targeting young people to both distribute and take these drugs,” Gildernew said.
“This is not acceptable, nor is it fair that our young people are being pressurised into taking these drugs to ‘fit in’ or ‘be cool’.
“What is clear, is that swathes of our young people are taking drugs for whatever reason.
“We need to educate them on the dangers of this, support them, try to encourage them to stop while also encouraging those who aren’t taking them to avoid taking them at any stage in the future.”
