Richard Greene, who died on September 20th, aged 48, had a way of leaving the men in suits lost for words. A tale is told of a lunch in Dublin Castle, when the vice-chairman of the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed, did his friend and boss, Mike Allen, a favour by sitting at the dreaded head table with the aforementioned smartly-dressed set.
The then Taoiseach, John Bruton, was among the attendance as conversation turned to the spiralling drugs problem in the capital. Statistics were quoted and theories expounded, until Richard Greene piped up. "You lot haven't got a clue what you're talking about. "I'll tell you what it's like to live with heroin addiction, because I see it on my doorstep every day of the week."
And so he proceeded to tell the assembly just what living with heroin addiction was like because he did see it on his doorstep every day of the week.
Richard Greene cut straight to the quick, driven perhaps by what Mike Allen called his "increasingly focussed anger, fury and desire to just get things done." Having lived all his life in local authority housing, and having spent almost 10 years unemployed, he knew what he was talking about. As he saw it, the established ways of doing things did working-class people no favours.
He was born in Dublin in 1951, one of 14 boys and two girls to Daniel and Maureen Greene. The family of 18 lived initially at St James's Terrace (now built over), off Baggot St, before moving to a three-bedroomed house in Walkinstown when he was three years old. His father worked as a general operative with the Department of Post and Telegraphs while Mrs Greene acted as something of a surrogate mother for most of the young people in the area.
"She was always helping people out," remembers an older brother, Peter.
"I think that's where we got our community spirit."
Richard Greene attended the local Drimnagh Castle school until he was 14. He did anything and everything before eventually becoming a skilled carpenter.
Economic downturn brought unemployment in the early 1980s although he kept busy with various community schemes.
He married Sarah (nee Blood) when he was 18 and initially the couple lived, in the Markievicz House flats off Pearse St. Subsequently, he and his wife, Sarah, were to move from Pearse St to a local authority house in Marino. It was there and in nearby Donnycarney, where unemployment was endemic and services minimal that he accessed education and started his own business, RG Training. It focussed on preparing people for return to employment.
He also co-founded the Donnycarney Unemployment Action Group. Involved in the INOU since 1992, he became its vice-chairman in 1997.
"Though his name might not have been on press releases," says Allen, "he was undoubtedly one of the critical figures in the organisation."
The driving force behind hundreds of initiatives, he was involved in numerous unemployment organisations across the city, from the Connolly Centre in the Coombe, to the Donneycarney Community Forum, as well as campaigns to highlight Dublin's drug problem. He was also active in the Labour Party.
One of his greatest skills, says Allen, was his instinctive feel for how things would be received on the ground.
"Going into meetings with senior officials he could always see through the nice words, look at the plans on paper and hit the right note, quickly, sharply and succinctly. He could immediately say `that will work' or `that won't work'."
He was great fun, remembers another, great craic, a guitar-player, and devoted to his family.
He was killed, with his daughter Christina (18) in the early morning of September 20th, when their car was struck by a stolen vehicle.
Richard Greene is survived by his wife, Sarah and their three children, Mark, Janice and Marianne.
Richard Greene: born 1951; died September, 1999