Tributes flood in as well-known Dublin homeless woman Ann passes away

"No civilised society should allow people die this way".

Tributes have been pouring in this morning after a well-known woman sleeping rough in Dublin passed away over the weekend. The woman, called Ann, was discovered on Sunday near the Tesco supermarket on Aungier Street in the capital. A beloved figure among many, Ann was believed to be a nurse and had been sleeping rough in Dublin for several years.

 Flowers and cards laid out for Ann on Dublin's Aungier Street.

Tributes pour in as beloved woman sleeping rough in Dublin passes away

Believed to be in her early 50s, Ann was well known to many around the Aungier Street area and would regularly be seen outside the Tesco supermarket. Many candles, cards and flowers were left at the spot she was known to frequent, with groups of people stopping by to pay tribute on Monday morning. On X, historian and host of the Three Castles Burning podcast, Donal Fallon led the tributes. In a post, Fallon said: "Many of you will know Ann, who sat outside the Tesco on Aungier St/Redmond's Hill. She was a kind soul. So sorry to pass this memorial to her this evening. She died in the cold last night." Hundreds of users replied to the post to pay tribute to Ann, with one saying: "Ann was a trained nurse, who didn't ask for anything. she'd give the money people gave her to other homeless people she thought needed it more. RIP."

Image by Valerie Reid for Lovin Dublin. 

Another commented: "I am so sorry to see this. She was a lovely woman. We’d brief chats & one day she asked me 'Are you a reader?'. It was then she shared her love for Roald Dahl esp Danny the Champion of the World, The Secret Garden, & above all Sebastian Faulks’s Birdsong. May she rest in peace." Someone else commented: "So many people had a lot of affection for Ann & cared about her welfare. At Christmas I gave her a tenner & she tried to give it back saying it was too much! Her legacy is that so many people will be incredibly sad to hear this news today. RIP" The news comes just weeks after the Department of Housing released figures revealing that the number of homeless in Ireland had reached a record high in January. 13,531 people were in emergency accommodation across the country in the first month of 2024, which is a 15 per cent increase on last year. 9,897 of those homeless are in Dublin - including 3,083 children.