Updated at 6.45pm
TWO MEN HAVE died while sleeping rough in the streets of Dublin city and Dundalk last night.
Gardaí in Drogheda were called to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital yesterday evening to take reports of a sudden death of a man in his 20s. The man is understood to have had addiction issues which are believed to be related to his death.
That same night, a man who was believed to have been sleeping rough was found dead in a laneway in Temple Bar.
Gardaí said the man was discovered in Adair Lane in Temple Bar last night. It’s believed that he travelled up from the Midlands where he lived within the past week.
Outreach teams from community group Inner City Helping Homeless came across the man in Temple Bar at about 11.45pm last night but did not engage with him. It’s understood that the man wasn’t on the radar of homelessness services.
Dublin City Councillor Christy Burke said that the man was discovered in the lane at 2am and that emergency services were called.
“The guy that found him came across him at 11pm last night believed he was asleep,” Burke told TheJournal.ie.
He came back again at 2am and saw that he hadn’t moved so he called the ambulance.
Flynn said that people who had been given emergency beds during Storm Ophelia had been put out on the streets after the storm had passed.
He said that the number of homeless people sleeping rough in Dublin represented a “systematic failure”.
“We had already called a meeting this morning to look into emergency measures for the incoming Storm Brian… and now we have another death in the system,” he said.
The Dublin Simon Community expressed condolences with the family of friends of the man who died.
“On behalf of Dublin Simon Community I would like to offer our deepest sympathies and condolences to the family and friends of the gentleman who was found in Temple Bar this morning,” said CEO Sam McGuinness.
While we have no further information on the circumstances of the man’s death at this moment, however we do know that people who are homeless and sleeping on our streets are very vulnerable; particularly as we move into the colder weather and harsher conditions.
Gardaí said the death is not being treated as suspicious at this time.
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