How can we even comprehend that this could even happen in Wexford in 2020, a year of much calamity and which may go down in history as “an annus horribilis.”

He was born unto to his parents in Poland, and a wide circle of family and friends. His name means the bearer of Christ and denotes a noble origin in historical times.

He was a friend and acquaintance to many people resident at Ozanam House in very recent times prior to his death. Naturally this sectagenarian shared kindnesses of himself and stories with them and was part of the camaraderie there.

Like many before him, he emigrated to Ireland from Poland originally, in search of better economic conditions and the prospect of a better quality of life.

He was also, like many others, bedevilled with an addiction to alcohol. Let us remember that nobody chooses to have an addiction. Certainly, it led to his becoming resident in our town’s homeless men’s shelter for some time.

He left the shelter and was then found early on Friday morning last. It could be said that he left there to die. Perhaps he knew already what his fate would be.

How terribly sad is that? What courage must it have taken for him to leave a place where his needs were being met, where he was surrounded by people from a similar set of circumstances and shared experiences to embark upon his final days marked by terrible loneliness, isolation, misery and most likely terrible pain, here in Wexford in the penultimate month of the year and nearing the night of Samhain or better known as Halloween, the time of year on which we mark the former passing of our loved ones on All Saints and All Souls.

What an irony that is: that this poor soul was left to wander in the darkness alone, that nobody knew of his plight or surely they would have done something for him, that he was left in that condition of bad health, possibly requiring necessary medical attention.

It is understood that he was not in the whole of his health and certainly wasn’t fit or safe to be out under the elements just off the public roadside on the Newtown Road near Wexford General Hospital at the time of his demise.

We offer our sincerest condolences to the deceased’s family and friends.

Ar dheis De go raibh a hanam dilis.

Surely the days of empty rhetoric and lip service of our policymakers are no longer held as acceptable. They however remain accountable to you and I ad our elected representatives.

Let us have the requisite honesty and transparency and the provision of real figures and structured approaches from our existing services to prevent its recurrence and to ensure that this tragedy does not happen again here.