Feb 23

Written by:
23 February 2016 

We chose a theme that we feel strongly about and that is This year the pupils of  Knockbeg had to choose a theme for our Junior Cert CSPE (Civic Social and Political Education) project. the theme of homelessness in Ireland

We chose this topic for our CSPE project because we felt that homelessness was a growing problem in Irish society.

We learned a great deal of information about homelessness such as its causes and effects and what is being done to combat this terrible condition that affects so many people in Ireland. 

Here are some of things we all learned from Kathleen who we thank ever so much for leaving her busy schedule to talk to us about this pressing issue.

• it is estimated 5000 people are homeless in Ireland at the moment 
• The majority of the homeless are male 
• The amount of Homeless people is increasing 
• The economic crash is presumed to be the main reason for the increase 
• St Vincent De Paul provides the most relief to homeless followed by Focus Ireland, The Peter Mcverry trust and the Salvation Army 
• Carlow only has 1 hostel for the homeless it being St Vincent De Paul
• We were told that having an abusive home can heavily add to the chances of becoming homeless 
• The Hostel Kathleen works at gets about 400,000 a year from the HSE and the County Council 
• 18-30 year olds for reasons like leaving school before 6th year and if they have learning difficulties can add to the chance of them becoming homeless 
• The hostel Kathleen works at has 16 rooms, 7 twin rooms all rooms have a TV and hand basin.
• It costs 10 euro to stay the night and that includes food and heating. 

The class found all these facts incredibly useful in our upcoming tests  and enlightened us on how real the homeless crisis is and what Ireland is trying to do to repair and rebuild the lives of these people driven to the streets mostly by no fault of their own and being victims of circumstance. 



In conclusion of our CSPE class project, we as a class have become much more aware of the problems that homeless people face on the streets .We were a very lucky class to have had someone of Kathleen’s knowledge and experience to come in and to explain to us and give us new and very interesting facts that will most definitely be going helping us in the long run for our Junior Cert this year.While Kathleen was talking to us it was very clear that she knew what she was talking about and that we as a class recognised straight away that homelessness was Kathleen’s area of expertise.With all the new information that we received as a class we will definitely have a lot to write about in our Junior Cert.I would like to thank all of the students for their joint effort in bringing Kathleen to our school.We would also like to say a very big thank you to our Principal Mr.Crew for allowing us to bring Kathleen into our school to teach us about homelessness.Also a very big thank you to the editors for this article and to the Nationalist for giving us the opportunity to share what we learned about homelessness with others who may not have as much knowledge about this topic then we do now.

By:Craig Fitzgerald
Conor Doyle & 
Michael Kelly