Liam McCarthy’s time as a volunteer with Cork Simon began in 1989 when he joined our soup run.

In 1996, Liam moved to the Management Committee, now known as the Board of Directors, where he volunteered for ten years, serving as Chair for three of those years. Liam’s move to the Management Committee coincided with the opening of our emergency shelter on Anderson’s Quay, a time of rapid transition within Cork Simon.

“My time with Cork Simon was formative. And when I say formative, I mean informing, inspirational…believing in people, believing there's more we can do and there's more we ought to be doing.

I was growing and we were growing. I was contributing something in a context of a community of people including the residents.

In that sense, John Street or Anderson Quay, or any of the houses is what it is because of the staff, the volunteers, the residents; that's the community of people and whatever I've done or contributed, my story, is in the context of that - community.”

Liam discusses how the interpretation of Cork Simon’s core values, especially community, evolved during his time, but remained central to the ethos of Cork Simon…