A vigil will be held outside the Dáil this evening in memory of man found dead in a tent in Dublin City Centre earlier this week.
Thomas Boyd Dowling was discovered at Loftus Lane off Bolton Street at around 3am on Monday morning.
The 44-year-old father and grandfather was treated at the scene by emergency services but was later pronounced dead.
This evening, the homeless charity ‘Lend a Hand’ will hold a vigil in his memory outside Leinster House.
The group is urging people gather with candles from 7:30pm to “remember Thomas as the human he was and remind our peers to start providing adequate hostel accommodation so no-one else has to die alone in a tent on the street”.
“He is not just ‘a homeless person’; he was a person,” the group said on facebook.
“A person with a face and a family who loved him. A decent person that fell on hard times. We met him every week; we probably gave him the tent he died in. The only home on offer to him at the time.
“We need to stop being so desensitised by just another homeless person. He was Homeless but he was much more than just that. He always waited his turn, he was never rude, had lovely manners and always looked out for us girls.”
A Lending Hand offers supports to the homeless and “anyone who may be struggling” in Dublin.
The group of volunteers offers food and clothes to around 350 people in Dublin every night, while feeding an average of three or four struggling families every day.
