‘I don’t want to die like Josef’

The best friend of the late homeless man Josef Pavelka, who came to national attention because they both had to sleep in a public toilet, said Josef was his fourth friend to die from drinking too much alcohol “and I don’t want to be the fifth to die from drinking”.

Speaking outside St Peter & Paul Cathedral in Ennis yesterday, 36-year-old Polish man Piotr Baram said: “Today, I am feeling bad, bad, very bad. I cry to myself only — not in a public place — about Josef. He is my best friend and he is gone.

“We were together every day from 7am until 10 at night. We never argued. I miss him very much.”