Pushers Out

For two decades Dublin working class communities, in the face of official neglect, fought to overcome an epidemic of heroin abuse that engulfed them. Led, variously, by the Concerned Parents Against Drugs (CPAD) and the Coalition of Communities Against Drugs (COCAD) organisations, the campaign captured headlines as a result of the policy of directly confronting drug pushers. At the same time pressure was continually applied to the government and statutory agencies for concerted action to address the drug crisis.

While successful in mobilising communities and impacting on the heroin problem the campaign was marked by continuous conflict with the authorities and dogged by criticisms of vigilantism and of being a front for the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Pushers Out, which fully addresses these charges, is a detailed account of the development of the heroin problem in Dublin and the response of the affected communities. It is the engrossing story of the anti-drugs movement as seen through the eyes of one of its most prominent campaigners. The well written memoir provides, for the first time, the inside story of a campaign described as 'undoubtedly one of the most significant social movements to emerge from Dublin's working class communities.'