This documentary tells the story of the Concerned Parents Against Drugs (CPAD) movement in Dublin during the 1980s, as told (for the most part) by those personally involved.

The movement began in the deprived inner city areas, where heroin dealing had become rampant by 1982. Residents began to patrol local authority housing projects, leading later to evictions by them of known drug dealers. The movement was criticized by the media and politicians of the time as vigilantes, an image enhanced by allegations that it was a front for the IRA [Irish Republican Army] and its political wing, Sinn Fein ['We ourselves'].

Meeting Room attempts to tell the story of the movement from the point of view of those involved, with a central leading figure, John 'Wacker' Humphreys, recounting events from the wheel of his taxi.

Interviews in an empty meeting room with other crucial figures, such as a Jesuit priest, local Sinn Fein and independent socialist politicians and several other participants are interspersed with video and photographic footage of meetings and demonstrations held at the time.

One of the main achievements of the piece is the description by one interviewee of the exact relationship with Sinn Fein and the IRA. According to the local priest, the movement had grown up of its own accord, but was being threatened with violence by local drug dealers. They approached Sinn Fein for assistance and it was made it clear that if the CPAD was attacked, the IRA would be supportive.

Therefore, while the movement was no puppet of the nationalist Republican movement, it did depend on them for implicit protection. From the account provided by those involved, they had little choice, as the police were unable to protect them from the drug dealers.

The picture painted is one of state failure in the poorest pockets of Dublin, where the absence of law and order forced ordinary people into desperate measures, including seeking protection from the only other armed force they could turn to. The eventual breaking of the movement by the trial of two leaders in a special court normally reserved for terrorists appears especially heavy-handed.

No evidence is presented in the film that the CPAD did anything worse than demonstrate outside drug dealers' homes and occasionally occupy and damage those homes when the dealers were not present. Indeed, those involved describe it as an important social movement, when people awoke to the power they could wield to make their lives better. Many of the then participants are still active in their communities.

However, the dangers that had been unleashed are also present - particularly in one gripping account of a demonstration in the Ballyfermot district, where the leaders had to persuade a large group of people not to attack a house with drug dealers present. Mention is also made of 'people's courts' which resembled those of the French Revolution (sans guillotines, of course).

It was easy for the middle classes of the time to denigrate these features of the movement. But they did not have to face the alternative of decimation of their young through heroin. In this way, the film sets out starkly the choices faced by neighborhoods for whom conventional law and order had failed.

While several journalists who covered the movement at the time are interviewed, few of the CPAD's opponents are, leaving only flashes of sensationalist newspaper headlines from the 1980s as the main countering voice.

Senior police figures were asked to participate in the documentary, but declined. The Government minister responsible for health was interviewed but his footage was not used, as it was felt by the director that having just one opposing voice against so many would not have brought balance in any case.

Those who are looking for a hard-nosed and probing investigation of the CPAD may have to go elsewhere. But the director said - at the question-and-answer session after the premiere - that the main object was to let those involved in the CPAD tell their the story from their point of view. It should be taken as this and it does that job very well, in an entertaining and fascinating way.

Cast Credits: include: John 'Wacker' Humphreys.

Company Credits: Writer - uncredited. Director - Jim Davis. Cinematographer - uncredited. Film Editor - uncredited. Sound Editor - uncredited. Producer - uncredited. Company - uncredited.

END

(c) Colman Higgins 2010

reviewed Sunday 21 February 2010 / Cineworld 17, Dublin, Ireland

Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012

www.fringereport.com