'I feel hurt we have been left behind' - The General

Storms Dudley and Eunice wreaked havoc across Ireland, which is still bearing the brunt of Storm Franklin.

Social media and the airwaves have been full of the horrendous stories of families in Inishowen living in homes affected by deleterious materials and sulphide minerals, including mica, pyrite and pyrrhotite.

Their walls are cracked and crumbling and their nerves are shredded with the constant worry of what damage the incessant rain and wind are doing to their homes.

Speaking in Dáil Éireann on Tuesday, Donegal TD Pádraig Mac Lochlainn described the situation as a humanitarian crisis.

He said: “We need urgency from the government and a 100% redress scheme that rebuilds the homes and lives of the affected families.”

Patrick 'The General' McLaughlin, from Buncrana, an ardent redress campaigner, told the Inish Times about the effect defective concrete blocks and products have had on his family, before he left Inishowen for a picket outside Dáil Éireann this week.

“In 2013, my son, Patrick, started to build a house, out by The Parish. He did it up as far as the sub floor that first year. He was doing it in stages. He emigrated to Australia to get money to continue building the house.

“In 2014, he did the rest of the blockwork and in 2015, he put on the roof. He was saving up then to do the next stages, as it was fairly expensive to carry on.

“The first time we heard tell of mica was in 2017 and he decided there was no point in carrying on the build. As a result, it is just a shell of a house, with bison slabs and it appears to have mica. It is obvious below ground level.

“My son has effectively been left in limbo. He is still in Australia. He was sending money home for the build. I feel bad because I was the one who got the blocks for him. At the time, I ordered blocks with 10 Newton strength.

“But, when mica reared its ugly head in 2017, we decided there was no point in continuing the build until we saw how the situation was going to develop. And, when the first scheme came out, my son was not allowed on it because he was not living in the house. It was not his principal, private residence.”

Patrick said his son's house was going to be a “ghost house” in the countryside.

He added: “He is heartbroken. I did my best. I fought. I went up the the Dáil more times than enough and specifically, in the middle of November, when I got feeling he, and others like him, were gong to be left behind again.

“I met a couple of TDs and I explained my case to them. They said, 'There shouldn't be too many houses like that, there is no reason why they can't be covered' but, as we now know, they have not been covered, they have been excluded, again.

“If I had Minister Darragh O'Brien standing here in front of me, I would ask him, 'What sort of a redress scheme would you put out if your son was caught in the same prediciment as I am?'”

Reflecting on the situation, Patrick said he felt hurt.

“I feel betrayed. I feel let down and to be honest with you, let down by people who were supposed to be fighting for what they told us getting on buses, 'we all gain together or we all lose together'. Some people have gained but a lot of people have lost.

“I feel hurt that we have been left behind. I am angry and I don't want to say it, but I must, 'we are the forgotten people'. There is nobody fighting for us now. We are not even being mentioned. All I hear is, 'if we tweak this or that, we can work with the scheme'.

“What about us? What have we to work with? When I asked those questions, I was told, 'we will fight for you down the line' and Minister O'Brien told the RTÉ reporter at the November 30 press conference, his priority was the houses with people living in them.

“I know of a couple of other families with children in Australia in the same position as my son, Patrick. They left Ireland to get work. It is in the media the last couple of days about ministers flying all over the world for St Patrick's Day to give a morale boost to emigrants, to support the Diaspora.

“But, they can't support our Diaspora to finish their homes. They are leaving them behind.

“So, how dare they say they are going out to support our Diaspora. They don't want our emigrants to return home. They don't care. That's the bottom line.”

RECOMMENDED READING

'How could we ever afford to build a second home?' - Patrick McLaughlin

Weekly redress protest at Ardaravan Square in Buncrana