Pushers Out

About the Book

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.'

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About the Author

Born in 1957 in Georgetown, Guyana, to an Irish mother and a Guyanese father, André Lyder was educated at Blackrock College, Dublin, and the University of Guelph, Ontario. Living and working in Dublin's inner city for some ten years he became active in the anti-drugs movement in 1996, soon assuming a position on the executive committee of the Coalition of Communities Against Drugs (COCAD) and acting as spokesperson of the organisation. In 1997, he was appointed Chair of the task force established by the Irish government to address the heroin problem in Dublin's south inner city. Lyder currently resides in Owen Sound, Ontario.

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