'We’ll probably freeze to death if we’re here this winter': Father and son live on abandoned bus in Cork

The yard where Patrick and Adrian Walsh are living in an old, yellow minibus, with no running water or mains electricity. Pictures: Larry Cummins

Sleeping toe to toe as rats scurry below their ‘bed’ at night, Patrick Walsh and his disabled son Adrian are in mortal fear of winter.

Patrick has lived in an abandoned bus on a site outside Blarney in Cork for about four years and he became Adrian's sole carer since his son joined him there more than one year ago.

Their clothes have to be replaced regularly because they are gnawed on by vermin which also eat their way into their fridge and freezer.

When the river floods it gushes under their bus “as loud as a train” and the windows - although now replaced - blew out once this year already during the summer storms.

Last winter, it was so cold that Patrick could not move his fingers or toes and he fears that they may die if they remain in the bus much longer.

“We’ll probably freeze to death if we’re here this winter,” Patrick, 63, said.

“I put wooden blocks here by the door to try to keep the rats out but they eat through everything."

The bus where Patrick and Adrian Walsh are living. Picture: Larry Cummins

Like many homeless stories, the Walsh’s is not simple. They have made mistakes in life but have also endured terrible tragedies.

Two of Patrick’s children - a daughter and a son - died aged 25 before Adrian, now 37, suffered a major brain injury when he fell from a bridge he was climbing as a shortcut home in Wales approximately three years ago.

His brain injury causes him to suddenly blackout - which has happened in the river three times already, almost drowning him.

"You have to watch him [Adrian] all the time," said Patrick. 

"I can't leave him near the road, he just walks out, he never thinks to look left or right. Two of our dogs have been killed there already. it makes me very nervous." 

Patrick became Adrian’s sole carer after his mother died suddenly at home this summer.

Patrick once rode the bright yellow ‘Old Mill’ bus where they now live to sessions at a pub in Donoughmore, unaware that he would one day reluctantly call it ‘home’.

Washing the dishes in dirty river water, having no clean clothes and having to go outside in the dark to use the toilet at night with a flashlight are some of Patrick’s most hated everyday trials that come with life on the bus.

Adrian Walsh and his father Patrick have been living in a disused bus by the river just 15 minutes from Cork city centre for the last four years

The Society of St Vincent de Paul regularly bring them gas cylinders and food hampers and they brought them a cooker yesterday.

A volunteer from SVP who has been trying to help the family said: “This is one of the saddest cases I've ever come across. 

"It’s frustrating for us trying to get someone to stand up and help."

One of the apparent impediments to finding council accommodation has been an €850 debt owed from rent arrears since 2013, before Adrian's life-changing accident.

An agreement to clear the arrears must be made before he can be considered for council housing, something SVP said they would try to help him with.

But the SVP volunteer said that the brain injury has effectively made Adrian a different person and "the new Adrian shouldn’t be punished for the deeds of the old Adrian."

The SVP volunteer said: "We’re really hoping that someone will be able to donate a mobile home or caravan, ideally on a site, so they can be somewhere safer for winter.“ 

In the meantime, the father and son continue to wash in the freezing river which they share with the water rats and use a bucket for a toilet in a nearby shed.

Lawnmowers for scrap/repair and abandoned commercial vehicles at the yard where Patrick and Adrian Walsh are living in an old, yellow minibus, with no running water or mains electricity. Picture: Larry Cummins

They run their TV from their van engine and go to bed at 9pm because they have no electricity.

“It’s a horrible place,” Adrian said.  

But despite their hardship, Adrian's face lights up in a massive smile when he talks about his dad. 

“He’s a diamond,” he says. 

A spokesperson for Cork City Council said that it cannot comment on individual cases.

But neither Adrian nor his dad has an open housing application with Cork City Council and neither has presented to Cork City Council’s  Accommodation Placement Service looking for emergency accommodation since one of them left a placement with a housing provider last year, they said.

The spokesperson added: "The family can apply to the Housing  Allocations Department for a new assessment of their housing need, based on either being normally resident in or have a local connection to the City Council’s administrative area, as specified in 2012  Regulations.

The yard where Patrick and Adrian Walsh are living in an old, yellow minibus, with no running water or mains electricity. Picture: Larry Cummins

"Families are not eligible for social housing if they previously were in arrears with the City Council. A manageable payment plan would have to be agreed first.

"Unfortunately, Cork City Council cannot offer housing to qualified applicants who cannot live independently, until the supports required to enable them to live independently are addressed by an outside agency.  Cork City Council works well with such agencies."

Councillor Kieran McCarthy said that there are people in city hall who want to help and urged the men, and the charities already supporting them, to make contact with the Cork City Council immediately.