Ann Delaney was a kind and soft spoken nurse, mother and poet. She was also homeless
Ann Delaney, whose passing away on a Dublin street recently has touched the lives of many. Picture: RIP.ie
Sitting in a doorway on a cold winter’s night, Ann Delaney stretched out her arm and placed a piece of paper into the hand of a passerby who had helped her.
Inside, in neat handwriting, was a poem Ann had written. “A word ya know, can harm, can charm, can be silent like the universal ...virtue of kindness c (with) out ignorant blindness, "Simply".
The poem struck such a chord with the passerby, Mairead Collins, that this week she traveled to where Ann was found dead on a Dublin street to pay her respects. She was one of many people who visited Aungier Street where Ann’s body was discovered last Sunday morning.
Unlike many of the deaths of Ireland's homeless people, Ann's passing has touched the lives of many - both those who knew her, and those know hearing the details of her life.
During a vigil in her honour on Monday night, hundreds of people shared memories of the kind-spoken woman who was a familiar sight on Dublin's streets.
Mairead Collins recalls how at Christmas time, Ann was sitting on the footpath in south inner-city Dublin where she had slept rough for five years, when she stopped Mairead and asked for help.
“I was dead late, and I was meeting a friend and she asked me if I’d pop into a takeaway to get her some food. She gave me the money; I got the food, and I came back, and we shook hands and she put a piece of paper in my hand," Mairead recalls.
“I opened it later and it was a very deep and very meaningful poem. I don’t know if she wrote it there and then, or if she had it, but it was very special.
“I kept the poem. When I heard about the homeless woman who died on Aungier Street this week, and how everyone loved her, I had a feeling it was her and that is why I came here to pay my respects.” she told
Ann, a 47-year-old from Dromagh, Crettyard, Co Laois, was discovered dead on Sunday around 9am by a worker from the nearby Tesco Express, who was concerned when he checked on her and found she was unresponsive.
How and why Ann Delaney went from being a qualified nurse to sleeping on the streets is not clear, but there is never a simple explanation to such challenges.
Ann loved to travel and worked in Australia, Guernsey, England and Ireland. She has one daughter Saoirse who is 17.
However, addiction came to dominate her life, and she refused supports from family, friends, and the community.
On the city’s streets she became known as the “heart and queen of Dublin” because of her polite and soft nature.
She was often seen feeding the birds and offering a comforting ear to people in her community.
At nightfall, she slept in a doorway but on one rare night in November 2019, she called into The Malt pub and began dancing to the music, and the host on stage jumped down and danced with her.
A man in the crowd captured that moment on camera and remarked online afterwards that “she absolutely loved it,” adding that “for that moment she was taken out of her world of living in poverty, and life of hardship.”
Mairead Collins said the chance meeting with Ann impacted her deeply and she hopes people will appreciate the poem. She has researched Ann’s choice of letters and symbols.
“The last line (in the poem) has a c with a dash on top which when I looked it’s a symbol that actually has a very simple meaning” she said. “A ‘c’ with a line over it just means "with".
“This abbreviation is often used on patient charts and prescriptions, as well as information or notes written by medical professionals.
“I just think it’s a special gift to have. It would be lovely for her family to read the poem and I hope Ann’s death is not in vain, she is a woman who should be honoured, because her words were about positive change.”
Ann's death comes amid an ever worsening housing crisis. Latest figures by the Department of Housing show as of January 2024, 13,531 people were accessing emergency accommodation in Ireland.
The figures also come at a time when the Department of Integration is under major pressure over a lack of accommodation for asylum seekers. This week’s figures show more than 1,100 people seeking international protection in Ireland are homeless.
Shay McHenry who is a user of the homeless services in Dublin, knew Ann for 10 years and described her as a “unique character with her own way”. He provided photos he took of Ann reading and writing in her journal and told the she will be greatly missed.
He said:
"I knew her over 10 years, we both used the services. She was a great character and had a nice presence about her. She impressed me how she managed to hold her spot on Aungier Street.
“It’s a hard life, it is difficult for everybody, we are in very challenging times for people and mental health is a big issue. There is not enough humanity, compassion and understanding for the people that are on the street.
“You never know the harm people get dealt in life or the life circumstances of someone which brought them to where they are.
“It’s more help than judgement we need, more understanding, whatever way you look at it, suffering is suffering and to endure that, to survive that every day it is very hard for people.”
Local resident in the area Angela Charlotte Byrne said: “The last time I saw her was Friday and she was gleaming and she said, ‘hello lady’. She never said that before.
“She read the newspapers every day. She would send me into the shops for the papers.
“She was a lovely person, very educated. All the children around here, no one tormented her. She was good to people.
“I never saw her beg; she might take a little whiskey. She was a lovely person, and a little lady.”
Another local resident Dolores Cray said: “Ann was a lovely person, she would always say hello, and everyone knew her, it’s very sad.”
At her funeral on Thursday in Doonane in Co. Laois Ann’s sister Roisin spoke about the family's frustration over her refusal to accept their help.
Holding back tears she said: “As a family, we never understood why Ann chose to live the life she did. Over the last number of years, it’s been incredibly frustrating and painful that Ann would not accept the help that so many people offered to her.
“Family, friends, and professionals offered her as much assistance and support as they could. However sadly it was to no avail.
Speaking directly to her mother Mary Delaney, she said: “Mammy you never gave up hope, Ann always knew she had a home in Dromagh and a family who loved her very much.
“Ann, we hope that you are finally at peace, we love you so much and we will always.” Ann’s creative mind, big heart and gift for writing poems was referenced at her funeral.
Fr Jimmy O’Reilly recalled how he gave Ann a lift to Carlow in November when she was home in Dromagh and she returned the favour with a poem about kindness.
“At the end of the journey she gave me a bit of paper with a short poem on it, a beautiful poem about kindness,” he said.
“She spoke about how she valued kindness, and what kindness she experienced in her life and her appreciation of it, because she herself had embraced kindness in her heart, she had great care for others in her heart.
“And although she was outgoing, she had a rich inner life and her poetic side showed that. And she loved music.”
The idea of a nurse becoming homeless and caught in the trap of addiction is almost unimaginable for some.
“Anyone can fall into homelessness,” explained Keira Gill who runs the homeless support group A Lending Hand.
“That’s why I said to people you can’t judge, and you can’t always help. Ann didn’t want help, her family tried, everyone around her tried, but she didn’t want the help.
“I’m working 11 years in homeless; they have trauma there. It’s not as simple as buying them a house and giving them money. It’s very very complex and they need much support, and we are bursting at the seams we just are not doing enough.
"Ann wanted nothing, when we put on our street café, and offered her food, she might take it the odd time, but she loved our woolly hats.
“Hardly anyone took those, but Ann loved them.”
Ann’s teenage daughter Saoirse was held by her grandmother, aunts, and uncles throughout her funeral mass.
Her aunt Roisin told the congregation that they are ‘very proud’ of their niece.
She said: “Ann gave us many gifts as a family, she gave us a lot of laughs, she taught us all to be more loving and affectionate but most of all she gave us Saoirse.
“We are incredibly proud of Saoirse and the kind articulate caring young woman she has become. She brings such joy to our family, and we see Ann’s kind nature in her every day.”
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