Fr Peter McVerry, SJ (born 1944) is an Irish Roman Catholic priest and founder of the Peter McVerry Trust, notable for battling homelessness in Ireland."'Pride of Ireland Awards': Homeless campaigner Fr Peter McVerry honoured with Lifetime Achievement Award"
by Jilly Beattie, ''Irish Mirror'', 4 June 2014; accessed 10 June 2014. According to one report, the Peter McVerry Trust helped 3,600 homeless people in Dublin in 2013.

Early years

Born in

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

in 1944, McVerry grew up in

Newry Newry (; ) is a City status in Ireland, city in Northern Ireland, standing on the Newry River, Clanrye river in counties County Down, Down and County Armagh, Armagh. It is near Republic of Ireland–United Kingdom border, the border with the ...

. He was educated by the Christian Brothers in

Abbey Christian Brothers' Grammar School The Abbey Christian Brothers' Grammar School ( Irish: ''Scoil na Mainistreach, Iúr Cinn Trá'') is a voluntary day school for boys aged 11 – 18 years in Newry, County Down, Northern Ireland. History The school was established in 1851 by membe ...

, and later attended Clongowes College. He entered the

Society of Jesus The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rome. It was founded in 1540 ...

in 1962. He received a BSc in Chemistry (1968) and a Higher Diploma in Education (1996) from

University College Dublin University College Dublin (), commonly referred to as UCD, is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 38,417 students, it is Ireland's largest ...

in 1963. He studied philosophy and theology in the Jesuit School of Theology in Milltown Park.

Fighting homelessness

After his ordination as a priest in 1975, McVerry lived and worked in Summerhill, North Dublin. During these years he came face to face with the problem of

homelessness Homelessness, also known as houselessness or being unhoused or unsheltered, is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and functional housing. It includes living on the streets, moving between temporary accommodation with family or friends, liv ...

and deprivation. He set up a trust to help struggling young people."Our hero for life"
by Jack Gleeson, dublinpeople.com, 9 June 2014; accessed 10 June 2014, "... rMcVerry was presented with his award by the Taoiseach Enda Kenny, at a glittering ceremony shown on TV3...." He first worked in

Ballymun Ballymun () is a suburb of Dublin, Ireland, at the northern edge of the city's Northside. Ballymun has several sub-districts, such as Sillogue, Coultry, Shangan and Poppintree, and is close to Dublin Airport. A metro stop on a city-to-airpo ...

and the North Inner City during the 1970s when he found young homeless people in the streets. In 1983, he founded a charity to tackle

called ''The Arrupe Society'' after Jesuit leader

Pedro Arrupe Pedro Arrupe y Gondra, (14 November 1907 – 5 February 1991) was a Spanish Catholic priest who served as the 28th superior general of the Society of Jesus from 1965 to 1983. He has been called a second founder of the Society, which he led in ...

, but it was subsequently renamed the

Peter McVerry Trust Fr Peter McVerry, SJ (born 1944) is an Irish Roman Catholic priest and founder of the Peter McVerry Trust, notable for battling homelessness in Ireland.hostel A hostel is a form of low-cost, short-term shared sociable lodging where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed in a dormitory sleeping 4–20 people, with shared use of a lounge and usually a kitchen. Rooms can be private or shared - mixe ...

for young homeless boys aged between twelve and sixteen. He focused on those deemed too difficult to deal with by other agencies. McVerry recently opened a residential drug detox centre in

County Dublin County Dublin ( or ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland, and holds its capital city, Dublin. It is located on the island's east coast, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. Until 1994, County Dubli ...

for

homeless Homelessness, also known as houselessness or being unhoused or unsheltered, is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and functional housing. It includes living on the streets, moving between temporary accommodation with family or friends, liv ...

drug users. McVerry has lived in

since 1980. In 2013, the charity worked with almost 3,600 vulnerable youths. There was controversy in 2014 when a candidate for political office used images of McVerry in campaign leaflets, and McVerry denied that he was endorsing any particular candidate. He appealed to the government to buy more housing for the homeless. He advocated greater spending to help reduce

inequality Inequality may refer to: * Inequality (mathematics), a relation between two quantities when they are different. * Economic inequality, difference in economic well-being between population groups ** Income inequality, an unequal distribution of i ...

. In 2014, he stated that the crisis of homelessness was threatening middle-class and working-class families. In 2015,

Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...

awarded him with an honorary doctorate. In 2015, he was awarded the UCD Alumni Award in Science.

Peter McVerry Trust

The Peter McVerry Trust (known previously as The Arrupe Society) was founded in 1983 as a charity to reduce homelessness in Ireland. The organisation was a continuation of work Fr. McVerry had been doing in Ballymun. The Arrupe Jesuit community in Ballymun involved itself directly with missionary work on the ground in one of Dublin’s poorest districts; working to scaffold community-building among socially disadvantaged people. In 2023, the Approved Housing Bodies Regulatory Authority (AHBRA) appointed inspectors from

Mazars Forvis Mazars is an international audit, accounting and consulting business formed in June 2024 by an agreement between Mazars and Forvis. Combined, the firms operate in the US and over 100 other countries, being among the top 10 global audit f ...

to carry out a review of the financing and governance at the charity. Their findings indicated that the organisation was facing serious and immediate cash flow pressures.

References

External links

Father Peter McVerry features on RTE tv in 1990 discussing the inadequacies of facilities for homeless boys in Ballymun
{{DEFAULTSORT:McVerry, Peter Living people 1944 births 20th-century Irish Jesuits 21st-century Irish Jesuits People from Newry Alumni of University College Dublin Alumni of Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy Date of birth missing (living people) Faculty of Belvedere College