While You Were Sleeping

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Map of area covered ambulance

Last night

John Gallen was taking part in the Winter Rough Sleeper Count 2014 and numbering the homeless around the environs of government buildings.

UPDATE:

Due to sensitivities around the Winter 2014 Rough Sleeper Count it has been requested that I request the post ‘While You Were Sleeping’ be removed. At the same time, I’d encourage anyone with an interest in helping out the Dublin Region Homeless Executive to join them in volunteering in next year’s count. Many thanks to the overwhelmingly positive comments to the piece and the brilliant work on the night by Dublin Region Homeless Executive. Until next year, yours sincerely, John Gallen :)

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73 thoughts on “While You Were Sleeping

      1. Alfred E. Neumann

        Broadsheet, fix that typo or half the male population here will be standing in her garden with their alabaster arms outstretched.

  1. John

    Whats the point in calling an ambulance? So he can tie up an emergency ambulance, then be taken to hospital, tie up space there for a while and leave? He doesn’t need medical care from paramedics/a hospital

    1. figleaf

      Absolutely, they should have just left him lying there to die.
      He was a 15 year old boy in need of obvious medical help.

      1. Don Pidgeoni

        Look, John clearly has medical training and can tell from the brief description above that he didnt need medical attention but a clip around the ears and a sense of responsibility

      2. ahjayzis

        I think the point is more there should be an actual service for looking after homeless kids like this, rather than an ambulance, no?

        That said he sounds a bit the worse for wear from the piece so no harm in a doc having a look I suppose.

    2. SeanR

      The kid was 15, and seems (from the account to be disoriented), so an ambulance was needed to rescue him from the streets as a minor. Did you read the account? Any empathy towards a homeless kid?

      Homelessness is just a scandal, no money to help in the good times and no adequate (safe) services now. For all the monies spent/ wasted on bailouts etc., there should be a significant effort to eradicate homelessness ahead of 2016. Shameful.

    3. Mark Dennehy

      Dilated pupils, altered mental state, exposure… yeah, probably high as a kite, but those symptoms also match a hypoglycemic attack or any one of a dozen other things. Counters aren’t medical personnel, so having them call the paramedics is basically just not displaying depraved indifference.

      ps. Please John, don’t have kids, because if that’s your first thought when it comes to hearing about a fifteen-year-old kid sleeping on the streets while obviously not in his right mind, then you probably shouldn’t be responsible for another human being.

      1. Casey

        Fair point. Shure, why not re-open the Magdelane laundries and admit all? Why should the women get all the fun of those places all to themselves. Problem sorted.

    4. Sidewinder

      Hospitals are a source of referrals as well, not just medical care. They’re not in business of cutting or injecting people, they’re in the business of treating people with whatever physical or psychological ailment they may have. Ever heard of a medical social worker? A&E is often the first port of call in what becomes a very complex and hollistic case (hollistic is not to be confused with “alternative” or any of that homeopathy shite). It shouldn’t be the case, but it is.

      Blame the system, don’t blame the kid. What do you think he’s ever done to implement the organisation of the HSE?

    1. Leela2011

      Agreed, thanks for that John. I had hoped to sign up for this but recent circumstances prevented it. I pass the same lads every morning on Stephen’s Green and hope that they’ve been recorded

      1. John Gallen

        Each groups’ area clip board came with a list of regulars known hotspots, so I’d say they’re hopefully-probably known, if not recorded on the night.
        As an experience and a look at the city from another perspective I’d highly recommend it. I’ve not done anything like this before. Don’t know what I’ve taken from it but it feels right.

  2. Nigel

    You absolute hero. All of you absolute heroes.

    ‘He refuses the dry sleeping bag insisting someone else will be worse than he… he accepts it in the end.’

      1. Dubh Linn

        Can this comment be deleted? It drags the site down to encourage idiots to display their idiocy like this. Urinating on the sleeping bags of the homeless? Lovely! What next, shall we all take a collective dump on sickly new born babies. Can Broadsheet at least PRETEND to be better than journal.ie???

        1. Goosey Lucy

          Dubh, you must be new. Mani is being what some call sarcastic, I’d call witty, but certainly not serious. He’s rarely serious- a good dose of humour on here balances out the mentals

          1. Casey

            Lucy, if you have to explain the joke, it is not funny.

            From what I have seen, Mani is funny once in a blue moon in a ‘poo flung at a wall, some stuck’ kind of way.

            If the idea that the first thing a homeless person would do with a new clean sleeping bag is urinate in it is the type of hillarity that floats your trawler, good for you, I think it is the product of a vaccant mind and I pity him.

  3. Spaghetti Hoop

    Sounds like good work John from you and the team on a wet night to boot.
    I thought a mug of soup would be better than an oul Snack bar but I guess a treat and a bit of sugar is just as important.
    There’s obviously something up with the shelters if the street-dwellings won’t go near them.

      1. Drogg

        Remember a couple of years ago a journalist stayed overnight in a homeless hostel and guys where trying to get him to smoke heroin and stuff. Homeless charities don’t have enough resources to police these places and overall their is just not enough resources out their for homeless people.

        1. Leela2011

          Was that the TV3 docu, video isn’t working on the TV3 site but Jerome Hughes did oen in 2010 called ‘Homeless at Christmas’.

          1. postmanpat

            Only on TV3 following that is a double bill .”Romanian Gypsys are going to steal your baby” and “British youngfellas go mad on the hooch when on holidays but Irish don’t” Think of the ratings.

      2. Selfie Sensation

        There are indeed many issues with the Shelters, aside from the fact that there aren’t enough beds the main problem is that they tend to be chaotic places and may homeless people feel safer sleeping on the streets than in the shelter where they may be roomed with Addicts or people with mental health issues.

        Another issue is that most of the shelters are “dry” and do not allow alcohol or drug use in the hostel. Many Homeless people are chronic Alcohol and drug addicts and would rather sleep rough than in a shelter where they cannot drink. That is just a product of their addiction and not intended as a judgment on them by me but it represents the facts. Yes there are Some “Wet” hostels but these come with their own problems and are not a silver bullet solution.

        1. All the good ones fly south for winter

          You’re advocating that we use bullets somehow and silver ones too boot?

          1. rotide

            Don’t try to pretend you haven’t watched Breaking Dawn 5 times Winter…. or should i say BellaFan57

    1. Casey

      *I imagine the logistics in trying to transport (and keep warm) soup would be a fair challange over a couple of hours out in the cold. It is probably better to open a stable soup kitchen and give those who are mobile easily transported snacks to distribute.
      (*Disclaimer: I imagine)

      There you go, entrepeneurs and inventers of tomorrow, come up with a solution whereby hot soup can be distributed to those sleeping rough which can be easily and safely transported.

      1. Domestos

        I propose a two-flask system, one within the other, and a sealed vacuum in the gap to minimise conduction and/or convection. I’ll call it the Mestos Flask.

        1. Casey

          Mmmmm….. and how can enough of that be carried by one person on foot and easily distributed without having to return to a central point for re-filling?

          I am thinking a better solution might be something like a combination of one of those self-heating cups / cans with a nutritionally dense soup inside which are light to carry and can easily be handed out (or left beside someone that is asleep) without the danger of anyone getting scalded.

          1. JoesephT

            you could rig up a kind of weed sprayer/flame thrower sized thermos that can be carried like a back pack with maybe two gallons of soup or else employ some sherpas and a couple of camels/lamas or donkeys to lug twenty or thirty gallons around.If all that fails how about a delivery bicycle with one of those boxes.Ies not bloody rocket science thats needed.Have you ever ordered a pizza?

          2. Casey

            What the actual fvck are you trying to say? Slow down. Take a breath. Go for a run to burn off some of that excess caffine. Think about the point you are trying to make and try again in words with sentances and punctuation and all that other importaint “stuff” wot iz neded in ordr 2 git yer pont wel made…. innit.

        1. JoesephT

          Ok, casey .I will keep it simple for you.Large thermos filled with soup and conveyed by one of the many forms of transport that are quite often seen traversing the streets of the city.For example a rickshaw that can carry two passengers might do the trick.
          ”There you go, entrepeneurs and inventers of tomorrow, come up with a solution whereby hot soup can be distributed to those sleeping rough which can be easily and safely transported.”
          No need to get all pissy when someone offers a possible solution.

    1. Alfred E. Neumann

      It may not be your intention, but that sounds like a pretty snide way of asking people to help.

  4. pissedasanewt

    Fair play and fair play to the two women. I wouldn’t go wandering around the streets of Dublin at 2 or 3 in the morning.

  5. Right you are

    Please make sure you guys give tea and sambos do all the poor unfortunates on Aston quay. They’ll need it to fuel their fighting, arguing and drug dealing all evening.

  6. John Gallen

    Fair play to the two young women I walked with last night, particularly the girl who talked with the kid. An impressive bit of coaxing, patience and a bucket load of empathy. And while she did that, the other girl briefed the ambulance personnel on the state of the young teenager. Super women! :)

    Both work at one of the Peter McVerry Trust shelters. Their job is in dealing with the homeless and so fair play to them to come out and do the work as volunteers too.

    1. Casey

      Aye, it’s nice to know that some people know how to represent themselves and can put the needs of others above themselves.

      You did a nice thing here John and managed to hightlight the fact that we’re not all a shower of miserable begrudging shilling-hoarding shysters.

    2. Liggy

      Well done John, that was a selfless thing that you did and as uncomfortable as your account was, I am glad I read it. I found something deeply chilling in the words “This kid is noted, not counted. far beyond the context in which you wrote them.

  7. Parp

    Such bollocks.

    Having said that, do I win a prize for finding a thread that Clampers hasn’t commented on?

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