Riches to rags
Irish ex-builder’s life as a much-loved street entertainer in Spanish capital
IT’S impossible to walk 10ft without bumping into a street entertainer in Madrid’s main square.
Most of them are poor immigrants from Latin America or Eastern Europe.
But there is one street artist that stands out a mile for Irish visitors – an old man dressed as Charlie Chaplin who has a handmade tricolour flag and a sign that says: “English spoken here.”
Underneath the face paint and fake moustache is 64-year-old Tony O’connor, originally from Cork, who has been relying on the kindness of strangers in the city for almost a decade.
His story is one of rags to riches – and back to rags again.
Tony was a builder earning six-figure sums – but he lost it all when the boom went bust.
He said: “I couldn’t get a job. Then I started buying jewellery from the Chinese and selling it. I couldn’t sell a thing. Anytime I went out the police arrived – boom.”
Tony – who is teetotal and an ex-smoker – was literally down to his last few euros when desperation set in.
He recalled: “I said to my wife, ‘What can I do? I’m not going to get a job in the building trade in this recession’.
“She said, ‘Why don’t you do what these guys do? Do a statue on the street.
“She decided I’d do Charlie Chaplin because her family come from the same street as Charlie Chaplin in East Lane.”
IRONY
Tony has a daily reminder of his old flash lifestyle – because in a cruel twist of irony he stands every day seeking hand-outs in a part of Madrid’s main square that directly faces his old luxury apartment that he was forced to give up when he lost his job.
He said: “I earned a tonne of money. I mean, my wife’s got two mink coats that she’s only worn twice. We spent all this money. I said to my wife, ‘Sod it. We’re just going to live life. We’re not going worry about it’.”
Tony has been dubbed The Good Samaritan by many distressed tourists that he’s helped through the years.
He stuck the “English spoken here” sign up two years ago.
He said: “I could hear so many people saying, ‘My passport’s been stolen. We don’t know where to go?’ or ‘My wallet’s been stolen’.
“So, many’s a time I’d call them over and I’d direct them to the police station. Sometime I’d give them the money for the taxi – it’s €6 or €7 – and they’d always come back and give it back to me without fail. I’d also sometimes go to the police station with them to act as an interpreter.”
Tony put up an Irish flag last summer because he was “sick” of people asking if he was English.
He said: “I would always explain, ‘I’m proud to be Irish’. I get people going, ‘Oh, you’re Irish’, and just because you’re Irish they put some money in. The Irish are so popular here.”
Tony regularly gets tourists coming up and kissing the flag, adding: “It’s mostly Irish women who kiss it.”
Tony admitted he was “embarrassed” when he started out as a street artist to put food on the table.
He said: “I’d be always looking down because it took me years, to be truthful, to get over the embarrassment of it. But
I earned a tonne of money, I mean, my wife’s got two mink coats that she’s worn twice TONY O’CONNOR ON HOW LIFE HAS CHANGED FOR HIM AND HIS FAMILY
now I’m not embarrassed in the slightest.”
But he admitted his wife still hasn’t fully come to terms with going from being able to splash the cash to a lifestyle of scraping money together for rent.
Tony’s “best time” for earning a few euros is during the summer because people “take pity” on him standing out in the scorching heat – it can sometimes hit 40C during the holidays.
Tony said: “My best time for money is between 11am and 5pm. A lot of it is sympathy. Women come up to me and
say, ‘Here’s some money because it’s so hot’.
“I get maybe 10 people putting money in my box and saying, ‘It’s just for the heat’. I don’t mind the heat. I’d rather the heat than the cold.”
Tony – who isn’t entitled to social welfare benefits because he never worked in Spain – keeps a meticulous diary detailing every penny he makes.
BAFFLED
He added: “Last July I earned €1,700. Last August I earned €1,600.”
But while that might sound like a good income, Tony reveals that he’ll only make a miserly €300 to €400 a month on average between January and April.
He said: “I get good money over Christmas.
“You’ll get maybe three weeks of good money, but the rest of the winter is awful. The worst I’ve ever done is zero. I’ve gone out and stood there for an hour and got nothing.
“Many’s a time I work in the winter – not in the summer – I’ll stand there for an hour and I won’t get a penny.
“In the winter I have an overcoat and a hat with snow on it. And I look quite pathetic. And I mean pathetic that people give me money. They think, ‘Poor sod’. I can go out there – and this is the truth – and earn €5 or I can get €80. A Saudi woman once handed me €200.
“The most I ever made in a day was €600.
“But I didn’t ‘make’ €600, I was sitting on my box and a guy came up from behind me and said, ‘Here you go,’ – and threw an envelope into my box. I don’t know who it was. I just heard the voice. And I bent down to pick it up and it was €600 in €20 notes. “This was last year. I’m still totally and utterly baffled. It came in very handy because January, February and March for me is awful.” Tony’s been robbed “two or three times” and was even assaulted three years ago by a group of drunken English football hooligans. But he tries to remain upbeat about how life is certainly no gold rush now that he’s in his twilight years. Despite going from earning a lot to depending on the kindness of strangers, Tony insisted: “I’m happy doing this. Yes, it’s big drop. I went from having a lot of money to nothing. It’s a killer, but you get over it.”