Marathon walk for Ann Delaney, woman deceased in Dublin street, fundraiser Alice Leahy Trust
Another popular question with Irish voters has been my decision to contest the rural district of Midlands-North-West rather than the city of Dublin.
One of the reasons for that could be the fact that out of 28 candidates, it looks like I was the only one to see Mrs Delaney the day before she died and moreover, I walked past her again in the hour that she died in a Dublin street.
Mrs Delaney was a nurse from County Laois. The County was moved from the Ireland South district to the Midlands-North-West district for the upcoming election.
Mrs Delaney's family have asked people not to draw conclusions about what happened. What I've written below is based on my own experience as an eye witness. In this particular article, I've been careful to avoid drawing conclusions about political topics such as housing and health care and I stick to the factual material that has been published by the press and those things I saw myself.
Family promoting a marathon walk to raise funds for Alice Leahy Trust
Date: Saturday, 25 May 2024
Time: 7am
Start point: summit of Mount Leinster
Finish point: Carlow
Route: Columban Way
Distance: approx. 40km
Donate: GoFundMe site
Contact: Alice Leahy Trust
Background
According to the reports, Mrs Delaney was 47 years old, therefore, she would have been born around 1977. Funeral reports state she grew up in Crettyard, Co Laois.
From the eulogy of Father Jimmy O’Reilly at the funeral:
"I believe in her early days she was a very good athlete even a champion athlete in some events."
"She was a brilliant nurse and worked in England, Australia and Ireland - and was never one for material things."
(source: Irish Independent)
Some time between 2016 and 2018, Mrs Delaney began sleeping in Thomas Street.
After some years in Thomas Street, she moved to the location underneath Dental House on Redmonds Hill. News reports have referred to it as Aungier Street but that is 200 meters further north. The name of the street changes multiple times as it descends south from Temple Bar all the way to Rathmines.
November 2022: Google Streetview cameras have captured a picture of Mrs Delaney in the position where she had been sleeping for a number of years. The picture below is taken from an earlier snapshot where Mrs Delaney was not present. X marks the location where Mrs Delaney was typically sleeping.
There are two important things to note about this picture. Firstly, while the news reports all told us she slept outside Tesco, we can see from this picture the doorway is underneath the health clinic. It is not clear if this doorway is a staff entrance for Tesco or if it leads to some other part of the building.
The second thing to notice is that there is no roller-door. Mrs Delaney is able to position herself within the alcove and gain a very modest amount of protection from the elements. We will see that the roller doors appeared later.
November 2023: news reports suggest Mrs Delaney had returned to stay with family in Carlow for a few weeks and then come back to sleep in the street in Dublin.
December 2023: I was in Camden Street and I took a photo of the skyline above Mrs Delaney. She is not visible in the picture.
Thursday, 22 February 2024: due to the challenges at my own home, I have been using hotels and AirBNB accommodation when in Dublin. On this particular day, I arrived at a hotel in Camden Street. It is a few hundred meters from the place where Mrs Delaney slept.
The same evening, according to the news report, Mrs Delaney had no circulation in her legs and an ambulance was called. The report suggests she may have been taken to hospital but it isn't clear at that point.
Saturday, 24 February 2024: I walked past Mrs Delaney some time during the day. Given that I visit Camden Street regularly, I had seen Mrs Delaney there many times before and I noticed that she looked different. I felt concern about what appeared to be discoloration or bruises on her cheeks. I felt this was something new that I hadn't noticed on my previous visits mid-January and mid-December.
Sunday, 25 February 2024: I left the hotel some time between 7:30 and 8am to walk down Camden Street towards the city center. In other words, I walked past Mrs Delaney at the very moment she was dying. This wasn't obvious to a passer-by: many of the rough sleepers are wrapped up in sleeping bags, fast asleep until mid morning. Sunday mornings are extremely quiet in Dublin.
Mrs Delaney passed away. The reports from Irish Mirror suggest she died at approximately 9am at the place where she had been sleeping in the street.
Timestamps in my camera tell me that I was at the Dublin Castle. At 09:01, I had taken a photo of the chimney stack. There are a lot of chimney pots for all the fireplaces inside.
Monday, 26 February 2024: I was walking past at approximately 11:30am and people had started placing the first flowers there. A local woman told me that the roller doors had been installed very recently and forced Mrs Delaney to move herself further out on the footpath.
In the evening, a vigil was held for Ann Delaney at the place where she died. I attended and took some photos.
The following weekend it snowed on the shrine.
On another day when the roller door was up, I was able to take some more photos of the space:
