A Priest Scrounging Methadone On The Streets Is A Cold Fix Of Reality, Reflects Peter Murphy

A rebel Catholic bishop roaming Dublin after dark trying to score methadone for the heroin addict he has taken under his wing. It's an image that could only have been disgorged from the underbelly of 21st-century Ireland.

Dissident bishop Pat Buckley's admission, on Marian Finucane's radio show last Wednesday, that he had illegally obtained methadone in order to help a young friend kick his heroin habit didn't just make for an ear-grabbing opening it also highlighted present and past governments' failures to implement satisfactory rehabilitation programmes for the estimated 13,000 heroin addicts in Dublin.

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