BY BRENDAN MEEHAN
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| Juan Carlos packing up |
“I don’t expect to miss Moyross, because I don’t see myself as leaving, simply expanding my work to other communities. This is not goodbye.”
His proudest moment was the change of school enrolment policies in 2005. “The Northside Local Education Committee made sure that all children got an equal oppurtunity at the same time.” Juan said there had been a “huge problem” for children applying to various schools prior to the issue being highlighted.
Juan spoke candidly of his time here: “What struck me most when I first arrived was the enthusiasm and friendliness of the people and that is still the case today. People in the area change but the area itself remains the same.”
Perhaps the latter reflects the pace of the regeneration.
Moyross faces many challenges in today’s Ireland, but the most difficult one is perhaps the sullying of the areas reputation by the national media.
“It has a very unfair reputation and as a result people get a bad impression of the place yet anyone that comes here sees the friendliness and resilience of the residents.”
Despite the media’s portrayal of this estate, Juan told us that “when you give people opportunities around here, they excell, there is fantastic pride and determination across the board”.
He continued, “I believe that Moyross’ biggest challenge is to make concrete the idea of regeneration and make sure the promises that have been made are delivered.” He explained that the attitude of the Moyross people towards community development has always been: “Here’s what’s needed, give us a hand and we’ll do it.” He touted Limerick Community Development Project as a prime example of, “We’ll do it, we want the responsibility of running our own project.”
One always needs the support and facilities to succeed when it comes to community development, but as Juan said - “the best solution to a problem is yourself.”
CONCY RYAN or THE RUBBERBANDITS?
Juan favours ‘The Rubberbandits': “I think they are hilarious.”
He also spoke on the adverse effects of glorifying negative lifestyles as seen in ‘The Outlaw Concy Ryan’: “You need to be able to laugh at yourself, but at the same time you have a responsibility to realise the effect of what you’re saying.”
“I believe there’s far more serious things on the internet about Moyross like videos of joyriding and burning cars, and these are real instances of a few bad apples glorifying a negative activity.”
Juan Carlos told us that while he has made many friends in his time here, his biggest regret is the failure of the proposed “Horse Project”.
“It saddens me to see that is no nearer now than when we started it.”
The modest Juan however didn’t mention most the work he’s done over the years, to give but one example, leading the Moywrites production team. In many instances he was the production team!
See you soon Juan Carlos.
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