New home and new job timely gifts for Des

A month ago he was homeless, unemployed, and living in a car. But last weekend, Des Hirsch moved into his own flat in a senior citizens residential complex in north Dublin.

And in January, he starts a new job, working for a long-lost friend who contacted him after reading about his plight in The Irish Times.

"I've been handed my life back," said Mr Hirsch yesterday, celebrating a change of fortune which he says has made this "the best Christmas of my life". Although he only became homeless in summer 2002, he considers the new bedsitter in north Dublin to be his first real home since he left the then family residence in 1989.

"The reality is, I now have security of tenure for the first time in 14 years." University educated and a former sales manager for a bakery, Mr Hirsch (59) lost his job three years ago when he was diagnosed with probable epilepsy and could no longer drive.

He then lost his flat when his landlord sold the house, and after staying with a friend for several months, he moved into his Mazda car, parked on the seafront at Clontarf. He lived there for 14 months.

Unable to get a job without an address, or to get an address without a job, his luck changed when he contacted the homelessness agency Focus Ireland. His situation was highlighted in The Irish Times and on the Dublin radio station NewsTalk 106, and local Fianna Fáil TD Mr Ivor Callely also became involved.

He was immediately moved to a transitional housing project in Drumcondra and - as a person over 55 - placed on Dublin City Council's waiting list for senior citizens housing.

The council respected his wish to stay somewhere in the Dublin 3 or 5 postal districts - he has grown-up children living in Fairview, and his social life revolves around the area - and he moved into the "nice-sized" bedsit on Sunday night. Rent is means-tested, but "will not be a problem".

The job came about when a friend he last met 22 years ago read about his situation and contacted him. The friend - who does not want any publicity - runs a home improvement business, and initially offered part-time work "minding the shop." But Mr Hirsch effectively put himself on probation, offering to work "a couple of days a week at my own cost" in the run-up to Christmas.

The gamble paid off, and he starts full-time paid work on January 5th "answering phones, dealing with customers, making sales, and providing back-up".