A Garda investigation has begun after the body of a man was found on the street in the Temple Bar area of Dublin's south inner city.
Emergency services were alerted to the scene on Cow's Lane just off Dame Street at 7am, and the man was pronounced dead shortly after 9am.
While the inquiry has only just begun, gardai believe the dead man was homeless and they do not suspect foul play in his death.
“We will need the results of the post-mortem before we can be absolutely sure on the cause of death, but it looks like he died, rather than being killed,” said one source.
Gardai believe they have identified the man and were this morning making checks to confirm the information they have, which suggests he was a homeless man in his 50s originally from Lithuania.
He had been living on the streets of Dublin for some time and had come into contact with the authorities because of his homelessness.
Last night he was taken by ambulance from the city centre to St James Hospital for medical treatment. But he left the facility and was sleeping rough on Cows Lane in Temple Bar where his body was found this morning.
Garda sources said the circumstances of his leaving the hospital were not clear, but they believe he decided to discharge himself.
He then returned to the streets of the inner city to sleep and was dead within hours.
His death follows the passing of homeless man Jonathan Corrie in freezing temperatures last month close to the entrance of Dáil Eireann on Kildare St.
He had been sleeping rough at the top of steps leading to the hall door of a Georgian house converted into offices on Molesworth St just metres from the intersection with Kildare St.
His death sparked a national debate about homelessness and promises from the Government to provide better facilities to take those sleeping rough off the streets.
When the body of the man who died in the early hours of this morning was found just before 9am, the emergency services were summoned.
However, he was unresponsive and his remains were taken to the city morgue, Marino, north Dublin, where a post-mortem is due to be carried out later today.
The spot where the dead man was found has been sealed off and is being examined by the Garda Technical Bureau.
If he met with foul play that resulted in his death the Garda inquiry will be a criminal case.
However, if there was no foul play, as gardaí strongly suspect at this stage, the investigation will be conducted only to aid the inquest process.
Gardaí were this morning trying to contact the man’s family to inform them of his death.
