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Dublin Live
Dublin Live
National
Ciaran Bradley & Mostafa Darwish

'20 of us sleep together for warmth by Connolly Station': The homeless freezing on Dublin streets

People living on Dublin's streets have told us about the drastic measures they have to take to avoid death and injury as the cold weather system grips the nation.

With temperatures currently falling below freezing, and the cold snap likely to stay for another week, we spoke to those who are worst-affected by the weather conditions. Dominic spoke to us from the Ha'penny Bridge in central Dublin.

"At the moment, I sleep down at Connolly Station. There are maybe 20 of us who sleep down there every night.

Read more: 'Some older folks have queued since 7am' - an afternoon with a Dublin food bank

"We sleep close together for body warmth. We usually have cardboard underneath us and a sleeping bag over us. We sleep tightly together for body warmth.

"During the day, we might go to Brother Luke's for breakfast or dinner, other than that we walk the streets all day. We have got nowhere to go. We are sleeping at Connolly Station.

"I worked until Covid, who would have thought I would have ended up on the streets begging? Not me.

"The homeless are forgotten, totally and utterly forgotten."

Dominic says that the scale of the homelessness problem in Dublin is underappreciated by those in power.

"Half of the city centre is homeless. You go into any of the laneways or back alleys, they are all sleeping [rough].

"What you see in daily life [in Dublin], this is the reality. All the laneways are full of homeless, there are homeless sleeping out in the cold every night."

A second man, David, is 69 years old. We spoke to him outside the GPO on O'Connell Street.

He explained the lengths that he will go to to escape the cold.

"I will do something small to get into prison," he says. "I have just come from prison - I was in there over nine months on a trespass charge. I refused to leave a hostel when I was given two hours' notice.

"I refused to sign the bail because I had nowhere to go. I can't really go to just any hostel because of my age and health issues. I don't want to be in a room with a lot of other people. So I just thought I will go to prison."

David struggles to believe a political solution is imminent.

"I think the Government have got themselves into a right mess over the years by not doing what they should be doing and it is getting late now. It is too late for a lot of [homeless] people.

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