NY police try to contact relatives of dead woman

NEW YORK police are attempting to contact the relatives of a Cork-born homeless woman who was found dead outside a Catholic Church in Manhattan’s East Village.

Grace Farrell, 35, emigrated from Ireland as a 17-year-old aspiring artist but had fallen on hard times due to alcoholism and an allegedly abusive marriage.

Ms Farrell was discovered by a homeless friend at 8am on Sunday morning having spent the night on a bed of cardboard outside St Brigid’s Church on Avenue B near Seventh Street.