Annual Gaeltacht Lecture November 30th 2013
A dhaoine uaisle, go raibh maith agaibh go léir, agus bail ó Dhia oraibh. Tá mé
buíoch as an gcuireadh a bheith libh tráthnóna. Is mór an onór dom a bheith in
bhur láthair.
I have been asked to reflect on the theme of “It doesn’t take hundreds to
build a future for thousands”. I have been told I have only fifteen minutes. To
say that to a Dubliner is like telling an Italian to speak without his hands!
Many of us will have experienced charismatic, powerful leadership, single
minded powerful individuals who are prepared to put their heads above the
parapet and take responsibility.
They are sometimes disparagingly called ‘the usual suspects’ but without them
some communities would be inert and lacking collective purpose and focus.
Having said that I want to reflect this evening on events over the last five years
which I believe have taken a terrible toll on communities and the charismatic
individual has become a convenient hook upon which community inertia can
be hung and localism a policy enabling the abrogation of the collective.
Some in communities have abrogated responsibility for their own space
preferring to focus on a culture of celebrity which appears to act along with
other ‘distractions’ as an anaesthesia allowing no reaction to terrible abuses of
the public finances and leaving a vacuum in response. Most communities
respond to a catalyst, they identify a ‘vehicle’ by which change might be
wrought. I think those catalysts for change have been profoundly damaged in
some cases destroyed by the so called financial crisis.
Before coming to that let me begin by telling the story of Shoreditch Trust.
Here is a catalyst exploited to the full. Here is a catalyst that transformed an
entire community.
This is the story of three women, Carole Young, Marie McCourt and Maureen
Walker who together decided that their frustration and cynicism would only be
alleviated if they took not only responsibility but power in their communities.
All in their 60’s the women had raised their children and reflecting on how
little had changed they began to search for a solution.
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That solution came in the form of the last UK Governments New Deal for
Communities programme. The women realised that they could bid for
significant funds from a pot that was to focus on crime, health, education,
sport and leisure and housing. In short more or less anything they were
concerned about.
In 1999 Shoreditch was not a place people wished to visit. Failing schools, poor
health expectations, poor access to primary care, high crime rates and drug
and gang related crime making the streets and estates appear to be places that
were not safe particularly after dark and particularly if you were young and or
old.
I was approached in 1999 and asked if I would like to apply to be CEO of a new
organisation that was aiming to transform Shoreditch but to do this with the
community at its heart using local people as a driver for change.
The role of the community was central to the function of the Trust. People
knew what the problems were. They knew how they wished some of them to
be addressed and knew that in order to have credibility they would have to
maintain that local focus. In 2000 the newly formed Shoreditch Trust
discovered it had been awarded £59.4m over a ten year programme ending in
2010.
This seemed on the face of it an extraordinary amount of money. However,
given that the catch up repairs bill for housing alone was £159m and the award
was supposed to address entrenched poverty in a historically deprived area
the real concern was that it may not be enough!
Very early on the decision was taken that in order to create a sustainable
community we had to create a sustainable organisation. Could we acquire
assets with some of our funds in order to have not only an asset base to
generate income but places from which services might be delivered locally?
Nobody said we couldn’t and I am a great believer in apologising afterward
rather than seek permission if there is a chance the answer will be ‘no’!
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To cut a long story short, in the space of ten years those women with their
professional team that I led transformed their community and their
neighbourhood. We built a £10m community owned asset base, opened award
winning social enterprise businesses, established a community property
development company and 40,000 square feet of affordable workspace.
We saw all schools come out of special measures and the establishment of a
new Academy. Shoreditch Trust founded two award winning social enterprise
restaurants, an award winning well-being facility and improvements across the
board in health and well-being. Huge drops in crime including street crime,
improvements in educational attainment.
In addition Shoreditch had become a global centre for tech and digital
businesses with over 500 tech businesses within a 1000m walk of Old Street
tube station. This offered employment opportunities and gave young people
something to aspire to and work toward.
We revitalised the parks and streetscape and street crime was dramatically
reduced. But more than all of this local people commented that they felt part
of a community. Their community of which they had once been so proud and
had become so demoralised was revitalised and it was the energy and drive of
three women who were the catalyst for change.
So how has this context changed? What do I mean when I say catalysts for
change have been profoundly damaged in some cases destroyed by the so
called financial crisis?
In 2000 when we formally began in Shoreditch the financial landscape was
totally different. The banking crisis was yet to come, the global financial
collapse was not on the horizon and poor and vulnerable people were yet to
be singled out and blamed for the sins of others.
There are some interesting statistics which appear to suggest that there is
money in the world it is simply distributed in a very narrow way and to the
benefit of very, very few. It is simply not true to suggest that the global
financial crisis has led to austerity.
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In my view the response of governments and their utter inability to take on
corporate fascism is what has created austerity. The expectation that public
services will meet the cost of private greed and incompetence is what has
created austerity and unfettered corporate greed is what has created
austerity.
Consider these statistics:
In the last decade in the United States 65% of all economic growth has gone to
the top 1% of people.
The 400 wealthiest Americans have the same net worth as the bottom 50 per
cent. That’s 400 people with the same net worth as 156 million individuals.
In the United Kingdom 0.6% of the population own 67% of the land. These are
the same families that have hoarded wealth and owned land for hundreds of
years.
In the UK 10% of people own 50% of the wealth.
77% of the “deficit” is being recouped by cuts to public expenditure and
welfare benefits. Only 23% of the cuts are coming from tax increases and more
than 50% of that is coming from increases to VAT which hits the poorest.
A recent Credit Suisse report looking at Wealth Inequality confirmed inequality
remains high globally, with the top 10% of the world population owning 86% of
global wealth, compared to barely 1% for the bottom half of all adults.
This same study also highlights the extent of inequality in wealth distribution in
Ireland. Excluding the value of housing, the concentration of wealth mounts up
to 1% controlling 44% of all wealth.
I am not necessarily making a wholly political point here. What I am saying is
that if communities like yours here in Belfast are to respond to financial
challenges this has to be on something of a level playing field. The money is
there it is simply not distributed appropriately. Nobody is going to tell me that
people ‘earn’ that sort of money.
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Finally consider this, in the last 36 months 1000 individuals in the UK have
added to their wealth by £155bn. This gives them a combined wealth of
£414bn which is 32% of UK GDP. If these people had paid the appropriate
levels of corporation and personal taxes this would have amounted to 72% of
the supposed deficit.
Tom Paine reminds us authority comes not from on high, neither from
monarchs nor from governments, but only from the people. Individuality and
leadership in communities from great and charismatic people cannot be a
substitute for collective action it should be a catalyst for it.
The cult of the individual has fed the unfettered capitalism that has wrought
ruin and misery across Europe and localism is being used as a vehicle to dilute
responsibility, direct action and ultimately democracy itself...... I believe it is
this cult of the individual that has led us to abrogate responsibility for each
other as community and that we simply should not tolerate.
What you are attempting to achieve here in Belfast is extraordinary because
your approach is almost counter intuitive to usual regeneration approaches.
You are using a language as your catalyst. Language and culture as your vehicle
to effect change and that is quite extraordinary.
The richness of our heritage is so extraordinary that to use that to inspire and
energise a community is a wonderful thing to attempt. Irish culture has made a
global contribution but has often been neglected on this island.
We know that many of us have suffered the casual racism of the ‘thick paddy’.
Our response is important. The fact that it was Ireland that in Europe’s ‘dark
age’ maintained and saved European civilisation through Irish monasticism is
rarely mentioned. The fact that this small Island has the fourth oldest
vernacular language in the world is rarely mentioned.
The fact that we are the only country in the world with a musical instrument
on our passport says something profound about who we are.
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The Irish contribution to music, literature and poetry tells us something of the
way in which we view the world and it is different. It does not make us better,
it simply makes us different. It makes the way in which we experience the
world and engage with the world different and this is what you are using to
create an Irish speaking community that drinks deep from that well.
Knowing where we come from enriches our future in a way that money cannot
buy. To support a generation of children and young people to truly know who
they are by immersing them in their culture is a golden opportunity. To use
that to then create community offers an opportunity to benefit not just Belfast
but Irish speaking communities wherever they are found in turn equipping
those people with the tools to engage with the world with confidence and
vigour fully realising each persons potential.
The depth of Irish culture and language used to create and sustain community
is a wonderful, creative and innovative mechanism and offers an opportunity
for the richness of heritage and aspiration for the future to converge in exciting
and dynamic ways.
Regeneration is never about bright shiny buildings it is always about people.
People who are passionate and committed. People who know who they are
and where they are going and know that all they do is for them, their children,
families and community. People like you.
I have spent 30 years building sustainable communities and if there is anything
I can do to help here in the Gaeltacht of Belfast it would be a privilege.
What you are doing and how you are achieving it would stir the souls of saints
and I am proud to be among you.
go raibh maith agaibh.
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