Without families, and with little ceremony, the funerals of five men – either homeless or known to homeless services – are taking place in Dublin this week.
Paid for by the Dublin coroner’s office and lasting less than five minutes each, the burials have been held on early mornings at Dardistown cemetery.
They come amid renewed calls for “critical incident” reviews of deaths among homeless people to examine any gaps in services with which they engaged and whether the fatalities were preventable.
At 8.40am on Tuesday, Polish nationals Miroslav Sierakowski (36) and Robert Matacz (47) were buried together in a plot reserved for what are known as "contract funerals". More than 30 such burials have taken place at Dardistown in the last two years, with the graves flanked by unmarked headstones.
Fr Eoin Thynne, invited by Trust charity founder Alice Leahy, said Mr Matacz had "numerous jobs" including as a delivery driver and factory worker before becoming homeless. Mr Miroslav, he said, had "a great sense of humour" and was "extremely mannerly".
Representatives from homelessness charities, the Order of Malta and the Mendicity Institution, as well as Ms Leahy, attended.
Mr Matacz died at the Mater on June 10th of “natural causes”, the coroner’s office said. It said an inquest into Mr Sierakowski’s death would be held in “due course”. He died at St James’s Hospital on October 21st.
Mr Sierakowski spoke to The Irish Timesin December 2018, saying he had been in Ireland for two years and previously worked with a wholesaler. After being hospitalised for an extended period after surgery, he lost his job and then his rented room. One of his greatest difficulties, he said, was an inability to get enough sleep while on the streets or in hostels. He then hoped his participation in a community employment scheme would help him to get back on track.
On Wednesday, at 8.20am, the burials of Gheorghita Ghiba (47) from Romania and Anthony Turner, from Rathfarnham and whose age is unknown, were attended by only four grave diggers and civil celebrant Gearoid Ferrick.
Mr Ghiba was found dead on May 24th at Wolfe Tone Quay in Dublin. An inquest will be held "in due course".
Mr Turner, who was not homeless but used some food services provided by homelessness charities, died on May 12th. Mr Ferrick said he would also attend the burial on Thursday of Thomas Mullen, from Dublin 10, in the same plot.
‘It’s so sad’
He described his role as “to bid them a final farewell, and wish them Godspeed and eternal rest”.
“It’s so sad,” he said. “These men were some mothers’ babies and whatever their life histories were, they were loved.”
A spokeswoman for the coroner's office said the burials took place months after the deaths as "it can take time to establish family and next of kin details.
“We must ensure due diligence before the burial takes place.”
The office “arranges and is responsible for the payment of certain funerals” where families not resident in Ireland are unable to arrange repatriation of the remains, or where family cannot be traced to arrange a funeral.
In his report on mortality among the homeless, published last year, Dr Austin O’Carroll, founder of Safetynet, called for the implementation of a “critical incident analysis framework” to review each death of a homeless person and learning from same, and for “five-yearly reports on mortality trends”.
His recommendations have been echoed by the Oireachtas committee on housing and Safeguarding Ireland "in order to try to learn from what happened with a view to improving services".
A Dublin Region Homeless Executive spokeswoman said that while it recorded deaths among homeless people, it did not review the circumstances. It is cooperating with a pilot study on mortality among homeless people by the Health Research Board. The study of deaths in 2019 seeks "to gain a clearer understanding of mortality" among the homeless population, said a spokesman for the board.
