Residents ‘shocked and concerned’ at death of man in Dublin flat

Residents of Kevin Barry House in Dublin’s north inner city, where the body of a man was discovered on Monday, are “shocked and concerned” at the man’s death, which gardaí have upgraded to a murder investigation.

The man’s body was found at about 6.20pm on Monday evening in Kevin Barry House on Coleraine Street in the north inner city after gardaí and emergency services were called. The man been dead for some time, possibly more than one week, before the alarm was raised.

On Tuesday afternoon, two Garda vehicles were parked at the scene while a number of gardaí patrolled the area and went door to door speaking to residents. A section of the area was cordoned off with Garda crime scene tape.

Fine Gael councillor Ray McAdam visited Kevin Barry House earlier in the day and said the community were “deeply concerned” that a crime of a “suspicious” nature had occurred in their area; and that the man’s body had remained in the flat for a number of days before it was discovered.

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Independent councillor Niall Ring said residents were “shocked, but there’s also a bit of anger and frustration that they’d been reporting problems in that particular flat for so long and it was falling on deaf ears”.

“There are about 60 units in that complex and it really is one of the best complexes. The community is very close knit. It’s awful, it’s very frustrating for them,” he said.

A resident who has lived in Kevin Barry House for several years with her children told The Irish Times that she and others had reported incidents occurring in flats, including the flat where the man died, “countless times” to Dublin City Council and An Garda Síochána.

It is understood that the flat where the man’s body was found is currently occupied by an individual under the Housing First model with the Peter McVerry Trust. The trust said it was co-operating fully with gardaí in respect of the incident.

“It’s horrendous. We’ve been warning that something serious was going to happen. It’s awful — that man was someone’s son at the end of the day,” said the resident.

Another woman who no longer lives in the flats but was visiting family members who are still residents said she was “shocked” by what had happened as the area was “a great complex” and “a few bad apples were giving it a bad name and a bad experience for the rest”.

Others told The Irish Times they were “worried” for their children, who had been “wondering what was going on” due to the presence of gardaí at the flats complex overnight and on Tuesday morning.

The remains were examined at the scene by a pathologist on Tuesday morning before being removed for a postmortem.