Homeless man reunited with family

A long-term homeless man has been given the best present of all this Christmas — a reunion with his family.

Mon, 15 Dec, 2014 - 00:00

Denise O’Donoghue

George Cunningham from Ballybrack, Dublin, has been homeless for two years and moves from town to town seeking shelter.

Last week, he was in Kinsale, Co Cork, where he met with a photographer, Lee, who runs the ‘Humans of Ireland’ Facebook page.

Lee asked him if he could take his picture and interview him for the page.

George agreed, posed, and thought no more of it until later that day when he heard Lee was looking for him again.

Lee had published George’s story, a desperate plea for a warm meal on Christmas Day: “I’m homeless and travelling around to any town that has shelter for the homeless so I can get a bed for the night as a lot of places are full. If I had to sleep out in this cold I’d be dead already.

“The only thing I care about at the moment is finding a place to have a Christmas dinner. If I could find a B&B that’d included a Christmas dinner I’d pay the money. I’d even pay €100 for a hotel if I have to, I just want to have a Christmas dinner.”

“The response was amazing,” Lee said. “From comments, private mails, friends texting me offering information on services for homeless people on Christmas Day, to people inviting him to their own home for Christmas dinner and bed for the night and some even offering to pay for a hotel/dinner.”

The biggest surprise was yet to come. “Of all the private messages I received, one instantly caught my attention,” Lee said.

“It was from George’s sister Sheelagh saying she hadn’t seen him in 12 years and wanted to invite him to her home for Christmas.

“She also wrote about how their mother wasn’t well,” Lee said, adding that he managed to pass the message on to George, who reconnected with his long-lost family.

He is delighted at the thought of joining his family in Dublin next week.

Ahead of his visit, two Cork businesses rang 96FM and offered to make him ready for the big day. He will spend the night before the journey to Dublin in the Clarion Hotel and will also be well-dressed thanks to Savilles Menswear.