Homeless RTÉ TV star thanks Pádraig Pearse for ‘instilling the passion to fight’

ERICA FLEMING, the homeless young mother of a nine-year-old daughter, who became the reluctant star of the RTÉ documentary My Homeless Family, opened her prime-time address to the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis in Dublin with a quote from a leader of 1916:

We seem to have lost 

But we have not lost

To refuse to fight would have been to lose

To fight is to win

We have kept faith with the past

And handed on a tradition to the future

“To Pádraig Pearse, I would like to say thank you,” she said. “Thank you for instilling that passion to fight within the Irish people.”

She continued:

“Today – as I stand here before you – myself and my 9-year-old daughter have been homeless for 298 days. That is 298 days living in what the outgoing government like to call ‘temporary accommodation’ – 298 days is not temporary!”

She explained to the packed Ard Fheis hall ahead of the Presidential Address by Gerry Adams that she didn’t want to take part in the RTÉ documentary. ”I didn’t want to expose my life to the public; I didn’t want people to have the opportunity to judge me; I was ashamed; I was embarrassed and I was scared.

“But, as the days and weeks passed with our situation not changing, a flame was sparked within me – I began to see how wrong ‘the system’ was. I began to see how our own people were being judged and ridiculed and forgotten. I began to feel angry.

● Erica Fleming

“No one was speaking out. People were too frightened to tell their story, so I decided to tell mine and Emily’s.

“I exposed our lives, I exposed the hardships of being a homeless working lone parent.

“I exposed the hardships of being a homeless child.

“I exposed how unfair the system was and is towards us.

“And I'm glad that I have done it,” she announced. “I am glad that flame was sparked within me because now it is a burning raging fire and it cannot be extinguished by anyone.”

The young mother holding down a job and raising a child without a stable home told the audience:

“Every time I am knocked down, every time another door is closed on me, I become more determined to highlight the issue of homelessness.

“Every time someone contacts me with their personal story of peril, it makes me stronger, it gives me the courage to outline how the Establishment are failing the most vulnerable people in society.

“We are being treated as if we don’t matter, as if we are at fault for becoming homeless. To the outgoing government we are only a number. We are only a statistic. They forget that we are real people, with real lives and real feelings. They forget that our children are watching how the outgoing government is failing us.

“They are basically telling our children that they do not matter. They are teaching our children that the less fortunate, are people with no worth. They are teaching our children that money is more important than basic human rights.”

Echoing the aspiration in the Proclamation to cherish all the children of Ireland equally, she said:

“Today, 2,000 children are homeless; today, 2,000 children are upset, anxious and unsure of their surroundings – all thanks to the previous government.

“Our children are being denied a chance to have a normal happy childhood, free from worry, free from discrimination. Our children, our next generation, are being denied a basic human right – a right to a stable and secure home.”

And she asked the audience:

“Do you think that the heroes of 1916 would be happy about this? No they would not!”

As a parent, Erica Fleming said, her job is to allow her daughter to dream, to have dreams and aspirations.

“My job as a mother is to protect her at all costs, to provide for her and to allow her to grow into a well-rounded, successful woman. Without a home, my child is being denied the right to have those opportunities. She is being forced to leave her childhood behind and to grow up too soon. She is being forced to live in a world where things are unsure, unsettling and unreliable.

“My biggest fear is that this will affect my daughter for the rest of her life that she won’t bounce back to the happy, outgoing, adventurous child that she once was.

“The state has failed us; the state has failed my precious gem.

“So, as I stand here today, I demand action. I demand that the public come together and say enough is enough. The issue of homelessness needs to be tackled today, we need solutions today. We need action today.”

● Erica Fleming with Sinn Féin’s Daithí Doolan and Gerry Adams at a briefing for all-party Oireachtas members hosted by Sinn Féin earlier this month

The reluctant yet articulate and passionate campaigner said that she refuses to be silent so that others can continue to feel comfortable.

“I will continue to speak out, I will continue to be the voice for the homeless families.

“I am not going away!”

One hundred years on from the 1916 Rising, she said, the heroes would be proud of her and others like her for highlighting the injustices that are happening today.

“I believe that they would stand beside us and demand action now. I believe that they would want us to stand up, to stand together – to stand side by side.”