THE DEATH of a homeless man, who was a familiar sight around Dublin’s Baggot Street, has inspired a floral memorial at the pitch where he used to sit, greet passersby, chat and beg.
Thomas Kinsella (53), who was known to all as “Ossie”, died on Saturday, July 23rd, at “home” – reportedly at the hostel on the northside of the city where he had been living for the past few years.
On a ledge at the side of the Upper Baggot Street branch of AIB, on Eastmoreland Place, about 30 bunches of flowers as well as small potted shrubs and plants have been placed along with written tributes and poems, from people who had grown to know Ossie.
“He was just a really lovely guy,” said Joe O’Shea, who works in the area.
“He’s been here as long as I have been working here, which was in 2004. He’d always have a joke and bit of craic,” said Mr O’Shea.
Carl Hogarty, who attends a clinic in the nearby hospital, described Ossie as “a true character, a great guy. It’s a shock to come past here and see all these flowers. I didn’t know he had passed on.”
Among the notes was one signed by “Bebe”, which said: “Ozzie, thank you for life’s lessons. May you now be in everlasting peace.”
Another said: “‘Yesterday’s history, tomorrow’s a mystery, today is a gift’ – advice from Ossie. We miss you Ossie.”
“Rest in peace, man at the corner. In my prayers always,” read a card taped to a bunch of flowers wrapped in pink paper.
A longer poem to Ossie is signed: “I loved you, will miss you, from your broken-hearted friend, Belfast Paul.”
The man who wrote it, Paul Smyth, was looking at the display yesterday afternoon, and said he had been friends with Mr Kinsella for 17 years.
From Belfast, he said he slept out most nights in a doorway on Kildare Street.
Of his friend, he said: “He was just never down. A lot of people would walk up and down this street, office workers, and he always had a hello, or if it was a pretty girl, he’d say: ‘Blondie, will you marry me?’
“He lived in a hostel in Swords and he had a bus pass and he’d come in here every day.
“He never really asked for money, though people did give it to him.
“It was about company for him, sitting here every day.”
A death notice published in the Evening Heraldon July 26th said that he died "July 23rd, 2011 (suddenly) at home, beloved son of the late Peg and Miley; deeply regretted by his loving family, relatives and friends."
Mr Smyth said he had last seen Ossie the night before he died, outside O’Donoghue’s pub in Merrion Row.
“I said to him: ‘Ossie, it’s time for you to go home.’ Then there was no sign of him Saturday, or Sunday.
“When there was no sign of him Tuesday or Wednesday, I went out to the hostel, and they said he had died in his sleep,” said Mr Smyth.
Ossie’s funeral was at St Teresa’s Church, Donore Avenue, in Dublin, on July 27th, before his cremation at Mount Jerome Crematorium.
