By Rita McInerney

Come September, Molly Dugan begins a volunteer assignment with Covenant House, a dream she’s nourished since her senior year at St. Pius X High School.

She is encouraged that the shelter program known far and wide for its ministry to teenagers seeking refuge is “coming back.” In the recent past, contributions and volunteers declined after charges of misconduct were widely circulated about Franciscan Father Bruce Ritter, founder and former Covenant House director.

Molly Dugan estimates there are “probably 10” new volunteers who will gather in New York City next month for their formation in community and prayer life. Last year there were only two or three volunteers, she says.

“The kids are still coming, more and more of them. Hopefully, Covenant House can be there as long as the kids are.”

The Stone Mountain resident, who graduated from Catholic University in May with a bachelor’s degree in accounting, has prepared well for her Covenant House ministry. She will work in Fort Lauderdale.

As a member of the St. Pius pastoral ministry group she helped St. Francis Table at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. During her undergraduate years at Catholic U. she volunteered as a Big Sister for a girl and two boys in a university program in Ohio and a summer with the Glenmary volunteer corps.

But her test came this summer when she worked as a volunteer with Irish “travelers” in Galway City. She and four other young women flew to Ireland June 16 with Sister Norene, of the Congregation of Jesus and Mary from Mt. Rainier, Md. The congregation operates Quest, a program for inner city children in the U.S., Mexico and Ireland.

The group was assigned to work with children in Hillside, a neighborhood in Galway City. Travelers is a fairly recent designation for Irish tinkers, the roving men, women and children who once traveled around Ireland in colorful caravans. Their name came from a talent for forging tin utensils for use on the farms and in the kitchens of the country Irish. Their reputation for honest dealing was not always good.

In recent decades the government has tried to make the travelers adapt to a more settled lifestyle with mixed success. Some were moved into small houses, others preferred to live in motor campers and maintain a modified gypsy life.

The American volunteers lived in a flat between Galway City and Salt Hill, a resort area on Galway Bay. Their goal was to show the youngsters the possibilities of life beyond their own narrow environment. The Hillside community included about 20 small houses and some campers, all provided by the government.

Molly and her group found the traveler way of life “eye opening.”

“We had no problem at all with the 40 kids,” Molly said of the experience. “When they’re taken out of their home situation, they’re OK.”

Her view of the parents was not as gentle. “Anything you hear about them is probably true. They neglect and abuse the children in many ways. The teach them to beg, to knock on doors and ask for money. Many people are afraid of the travelers.” School is not a primary concern.

The girls were passive, but the boys “mostly always fought,” Molly says. And she found “tolerance for violence among the adults out of the ordinary.”

Her compassion went out to the girls who had to “mother” their often numerous younger siblings while mother was expecting or nursing the newest infant in the family.

She recalls one such girl, 12, “not a happy child,” who went along on an excursion with Quest volunteers to the Ailwee Caves in County Clare. “Kathleen” was frightened when the children and volunteers entered the awesome cavern. But she didn’t run out like some of the others.

“She held onto me. She was a child again,” Molly says.

Despite the sometimes frustrating encounters with people who don’t know life could be better, and adjusting to the “Irish time” of her summer, Molly is philosophical.

“Overall it was a good experience, to learn a different life style and to be able to talk to other Irish people about the travelers.”

Molly is sure of one thing. “I can’t impose my values or systems on other people. That will be something I’ll have to struggle with every day working with street kids at Covenant House and beyond, in any career I have.”

One of three children of Brian and Ann Dugan, she is looking at pastoral ministry and social work or some combination of both after her Covenant House volunteer period.

May was a busy month for the Dugans. Her brother Michael graduated from the law school at the University of Georgia and sister Katie from Brenau College in Gainesville.