HUNDREDS JOIN VIGIL TO REMEMBER ANN
SEVERAL hundred people gathered last night to pay their respects to a 47-year-old mother who died sleeping rough in Dublin at the weekend.
Ann Delaney, a nurse and mother of a 17-year-old daughter, died at around 9am on Sunday close to a Tesco Express supermarket on Aungier Street.
Ms Delaney, originally from Crettyard, Co. Laois, is understood to have worked in a Dublin hospital and had been living rough for at least seven years.
Numerous floral bouquets and candles have been left at the spot where she slept and where her body was discovered.
From 7pm people began to gather at the makeshift shrine in her memory before the vigil at 8pm.
Members of the public holding red and pink balloons in her memory released them as her favourite song, Crazy World by Aslan was played out over a sound system.
Chris O’Reilly, who runs the Liberty Soup Run, told the crowd: ‘Everyone knew Ann. She was just an amazing person, an amazing woman. She had rough times in life like us all and unfortunately Ann ended up on the streets.
‘She never saw her way out (of what she was going through) God love her, she’s at peace now, she’s out of pain. This is for Ann’s family as well, we are all behind you.
‘Ann was our family as well. We classed her as a sister. She loved Liverpool soccer club and that’s why there are so many people holding red balloons.
‘To see all of this support is just incredible. As a community and wider community, there are people here from all over. Ann was a gem, she was such a lovely lady.
‘If you brought her items, she’d ask if it was second-hand but she wanted the new stuff, she still had her sense of humour. Ann could crack a joke and there were days she didn’t want to talk to you because of what she was going through but we all accepted that.’
Mr O’Reilly added that Ann would be missed ‘so much’ and appealed to people to attend her funeral to show their respects to her and her family.
One woman said as she chatted to Ms Delaney every Saturday after Mass at Whitefriar’s Church on Aungier Street.
She said: ‘She was lovely to chat to and a lovely person.’
Funeral arrangements are yet to be announced.