MEMORIAL TO JOHNNY
Tragedy as 22-year-old dies after months sleeping rough in Drogheda
A CANDLELIT memorial has been placed at the site in Drogheda where a homeless man slept for the last number of months before his death last week.
Johnny Gallagher (22), pictured left, became known as the ‘Elverys man’, wrapping himself up in a sleeping bag in the doorway of the West Street sports store each night.
He was found on Mill Lane off Trinity Street on Wednesday night, just after 10pm. He was later pronounced dead at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital.
Members of the Dominican community expressed their shock at Johnny’s death.
‘We met him just a few nights before his death when we did a sleepout for Focus Ireland. It is so sad,’ Rita Hanratty from the group said.
A candlelit memorial has been placed at the site of where a homeless man spent the last number of months before his death last week.
Johnny Gallagher (22) became known as the ‘Elverys man’, wrapping himself up in a sleeping bag in the doorway of the West Street store each night.
He was found on Mill Lane off Trinity Street on Wednesday night, just after 10pm. He was pronounced dead in Our Lady of Lourdes hospital.
Members of the Dominican community expressed their shock at Johnny’s death.
‘We met him just a few nights before his death when we did a sleepout for Focus Ireland. We walked the town with tea and sandwiches for those sleeping rough and met him outside Elverys. We even went off and got him an extra blanket,’ Rita Hanratty from the group stated.
They also met him on the day of Storm Ophelia and had again visited his usual sleeping spot on the Wednesday night he died with more tea and something to eat.
‘He wasn’t there and we were concerned, but hoped that he’d found a place indoors for that night.’
Volunteers spoke with him and found Johnny to be an independent person who felt more comfortable on his own.
‘He said he had been with Focus Ireland in Dublin for some years and got good help there. He had his wits about him. There was still a good and caring person there,’ Rita added.
She recalled on the night of the sleep out, they had asked him to come down to the church as they had lit a fire and wanted him to warm up.
‘He joked that we were cheating because we had a fire,’ she smiled.
Fr Jim Donleavy said the volunteers were deeply saddened by the young man’s death and were more determined than ever to help people.
‘We first of all have to respect people’s privacy. Everybody has their own story and everybody is different, we can just try and understand them and their needs.
‘We are going to get a service to provide tea and food for people who need it, but we need volunteers to help and those interested can contact us at the Dominican,’ he said.
The death of the young Duleek man has sparked renewed calls for an outreach service to be established in the biggest town in the country.
The Dominicans aim to help those in need in terms of food and clothing, but it is felt that addiction and mental health issues are also a serious contributing factor to those sleeping rough.
Mayor Pio Smith feels the young man’s death should affect the whole community
‘His death is tragic. No child comes into this world to end up dying on the street and we as a society need to ask questions about why this is happening in the 21st century and are we doing enough to prevent this.
‘In my opinion, this death signifies the lack of services and supports around mental health and addiction services in Drogheda and across the country. Mental health and addiction is not seen as something that will gather up a lot of votes. We hear about trolly counts and delays to treatment for people in regards to physical health and rightly so, but nothing about the lack of services in mental health provision,’ he continued.
He says there are 43,000 people in the town, some 30,000 more within a 12km radius and when even one of those begins to live life on the streets, where is the help? ‘ How in the name of God are we to reach vulnerable people when the HSE do not provide a proper outreach service in Drogheda,’ he states.
He says he has brought people to the psychiatric clinic on the Crosslanes who were clearly suicidal and they were discharged rather than being admitted.
‘ The clinic needs more staff and beds and in my opinion mental health professionals working there are under pressure because of the lack of resources. If we don’t have the resources to help vulnerable people, and we turn them away from clinics because of this, then is it any surprise that we will be dealing with a death as tragic as this one.’
‘ The death of a young Drogheda man on the streets should bring it home to all of us that something is wrong with our system of care and we need to fix it. Otherwise we will be back here in the near future talking about another death,’ he comtinued.
Cllr Frank Godfrey is another who has been on the frontline of the homeless issue, even last Thursday night coming across a squat on Mill Lane, with up to nine people in there (pictured below)
‘What if there was a fire there. I also believe people are sleeping in Donaghy’s Mill. I have come across people in cars and a tent in Highfield. People have said there’s very few homeless in Drogheda and I totally disagree with that. We could have up to 40 to 50 at any time,’ he stated.
Archdeacon James Carroll also expressed his condolences to the family of Johnny Gallagher and also wished that an outreach could be set up, along the lines of the words spoken by Mayor Smith.
John Gallagher was laid to rest on Saturday morning in Knockcommon Cemetery after mass in Rosnaree Church.
‘‘We’ll have a mass this Friday night at 7.30pm in the Dominican Church to remember Johnny and we’d invite all that knew him to come along. But it will also be for other homeless and for those helping and indeed, for people who care about our society,’ Fr Jim Donleavy concluded. ‘We have to make sure this is the start of something, not the end.’