Dear Madam, - A special collection was taken up at the three masses of the weekend of November 8 and 9 at St Mary’s Newtownbutler and St Patrick’s Donagh with the generous permission of Fr. Michael King PP. The funds collected at the masses which amounted to £505 and €145 will assist the Trust to alleviate the huge increase in homeless and food demands in the major centres brought about by the draconian austerity of recent years that has saw families plunge from luxury homes to a life on the streets.

That situation has brought into action the ‘Open a door to the Poor’ catchphrase with a huge push by the volunteers of the Trust to go on an extra mile to raise the extra cash needed for our less fortunate brethren.

In the 1950s and 60s, as a young man domiciled in Dublin City, I worked with the late great Frank Duff of the Morning Star as a volunteer in his care centre and night shelter catering for then a few dozen unfortunates, fallen from grace, mostly due to alcohol addiction. On present day statistics of narcotics, alcohol and austerity, my previous experience was only scratching the surface of what Fr. McVerry’s Trust is experiencing today and how necessary it is for his Trust and other organisations home based such as ‘Simon’ to have adequate funding to stem the tide of poverty that is on our very doorstep.

Over the past 30 years that I have been domiciled in Fermanagh, among very caring people, with an excellent neighbourhood watch out for the unfortunate, that situation is not so prevalent within huge urban populated areas. In the span of those 3 decades, I have dedicated my energies in the promotion and development of athletics and football for the benefit of our children and young people. However, with the scale of poverty and human deprivation that I have become aware off in the past 2 years, I have a severe regret and a conscience that I have neglected a more important field to labour in.

We here in Fermanagh within football circles are well known to stand up to be counted where funding is required for club and county teams. A measure of that generosity of the Fermanagh Gaels was the raising of £35,000 recently for the Fermanagh ladies team who went to Croke Park and I, as a long term treasurer, would have propagated the cause and up front awareness of the generosity in every corner of Fermanagh.

The regrets that I have are on reflection was that I moved on a solid highway and forgot those stuck in the mire. I would wish through the medium of your paper to ignite an interest in the parishes in Fermanagh to request permission from your Parish Priest and arrange a weekend church gate collection for the great champion of the poor – Fr McVerry’s homeless and food trust funding.

The Parish of Galloon are proud to have set the ball rolling and look forward to the county responding. If there is a person or two in every parish willing to co-ordinate a collection or indeed a fundraiser, I will be delighted to hear from them and arrange a liaison with Fr. McVerry. I can be contacted by telephone at 028 677 38562 or 078 95332312.

Yours faithfully, Pat Chapman Corlatt Newtownbutler.