From London’s streets to Kerry’s ‘El Dorado’

ASK Paddy Curran where he lives and he will proudly tell you: “El Dorado.”

Like the fabled place, it’s the ultimate prize he spent his life seeking — being back home again in Kerry.

To listen to him speak, you’d not think he’d ever left to spend the best part of five decades in Britain.

Nor does his voice convey any of the heartache endured in desperate times during that 47-year sojourn.

On the contrary, it testifies to a buoyant spirit that soared above adversity when he lived on London’s streets, friendless and alone, not so long ago.

At the end of July, Paddy, 67, returned to his native county and discovered his very own El Dorado — the name he has given his new Kerry home.

He’s in a beautiful spot, in a house provided by the community for returning emigrants.

“I’ve had a few busy days and I have another few busy days coming up,” said the Cahirciveen-native.

Paddy’s busy time relates to a media interest in his heart-warming story. Listeners heard about it on Marian Finucane RTÉ Radio show on Saturday and there are the other interviews in train.

“I called the house El Dorado because of its Wild West connections. I was a bit of a cowboy way back,” he explains.

Paddy’s story borders on the fantastic. Missing for more than 20 years, his image turned up in a magazine featuring Irish homeless people in London — and his nephew chanced to see it on an Aer Lingus flight to Dublin.

Ciarán O’Sullivan took the magazine home to show his mother, Bridie, who was convinced it was her long-lost brother.

Until then, Paddy’s eight siblings had no way of knowing whether he was living or dead.

Bridie O’Sullivan and her seven siblings contacted the charity behind the photographs, Cricklewood Homeless Concern (CHC), who arranged for Paddy to be reunited with his family.

Losing his pub job three years ago, Paddy had ended up living on the streets — at one stage, sleeping in the back of a car to keep out the freezing winter cold.

“I spent about 12 months on the street and I was at rock bottom,” said Paddy.

“I’d always wanted to go back home one day but I’d been away for so long in London and had lost touch with everyone.”

Offered a bed and food at the CHC hostel, Paddy was discovered by photographer Anne O’Sullivan who was doing a feature on homeless Irish people. He told her of his dream to return to his roots in Kerry.

Paddy agreed to take part in a photographic project detailing the lives of the Irish homeless in north London. And her photograph of Paddy appeared in the airline magazine...to be seen by the missing man’s own nephew.

Paddy was doubly lucky. He had family back in Kerry who were able to track him down — and want him back.

“It was like being found again,” said Paddy, recalling how family contact was made. “It was very exciting — emotional. You know the feeling, when you’re missing for years, 20 years in fact, without contact — mainly through my own misdemeanours. It was beautiful.”

Now, the fulfilled Kerryman is in El Dorado, the place of his dreams.