Homeless Dubliners to give tours with a difference as tourism booms

New tours of Dublin, Ireland to be launched mid-March will be led by homeless people trained up as guides by a social enterprise. They will offer unique perspectives to some of the more than 6 million visitors expected in the Irish capital in 2019. Report by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Dublin’s Phoenix Park boasts the official residence of Ireland’s president, but for a while it was also home to Eddie Dooner who lived there in a tent with three dogs.

Dooner, 27, plans to return to his old haunt soon, but this time he will be leading a party of tourists under a scheme which trains the city’s homeless as tour guides.

Ireland is in the grips of a housing crisis, with homelessness topping a record 10,000 people, according to housing charities.

My Streets Ireland — one of some 1,400 social enterprises in the country that tackle social and environmental problems while also making a profit to reinvest in their missions — aims to give homeless people new skills and an income.

Enthusiastic and articulate, Dooner is keen to dispel the stigma of homelessness while showing off his home city.

Full story at https://goodtourismblog.com/2019/03/homeless-dubliners-give-tours-as-tourism-booms/