A 37-year-old homeless man died early yesterday morning while sleeping with his partner in a doorway in Camden Street in Dublin's city centre.
Gardaí are awaiting the results of the post-mortem but it is thought that a combination of drugs and alcohol may have contributed to the death of Ballyfermot man, Mr Francis Devoy.
He had a bed in the new "wet hostel" in Aungier Street - so described because homeless people are allowed to drink in it "in a controlled way" - but his partner, Ms Elizabeth Lynch (29), did not.
The hostel is a pilot project introduced in December as part of the Dublin City Council's winter strategy on homelessness.
It is designed to address the problem of alcoholics who sleep rough being numbed by their drinking, leaving them at greater risk of hypothermia.
The couple had been drinking in St Patrick's Park with a friend on Thursday and Ms Lynch said she believed a man had given Mr Devoy methadone.
Methadone may also have been a factor in the death of an Arklow drug user earlier this month. Larry Byrne (22) died two days after he had bought the heroin substitute outside the Custom House in Dublin.
Methadone treatment protocols introduced by the Department of Health in 1998 aimed to ensure addicts took the substance in the presence of a doctor or pharmacist.
Mr Devoy went into the hostel on Thursday evening and Ms Lynch sat on the steps and fell asleep.
Later, he brought her out a sandwich and said he wanted to go to the off-licence.
"I said you go back in and go to sleep because you need a sleep," Ms Lynch recalled. "He said: 'I don't want to see you on the streets'."
At 10.30 p.m. they got the bus to an off-licence and sat in a doorway on Camden Street drinking wine. "He was grand. He was talking to me, not a bother on him."
They fell asleep and when she awoke after 6 a.m. she couldn't wake him. Ms Lynch asked a man delivering newspapers to wake him. "Your man's face went white. I did too."
She said she still couldn't believe he was gone. "It's very hard. I can't cry any more. There's nothing inside me. I know it's shocking . . . I loved him. I wake up and my fella is dead beside me."
After finding her partner dead, Ms Lynch called to Trust, which provides support to homeless people.
Its director and co-founder, Ms Alice Leahy, said Ms Lynch had been through a dreadful experience. "It's shocking to think that sort of thing could happen in this day and age, in the middle of Dublin, a stone's throw from the Spire," Ms Leahy said.
The death was described as "tragic" by both Dublin City Council and the De Paul Trust, which runs the hostel on behalf of the council.
Mr Colm O'Connor, head of the council's housing and homeless services, said the council was working with the health board and the voluntary agencies to find accommodation for Ms Lynch. She would have a room in a hostel in the meantime.
Mr Tony Duffin, services manager for the De Paul Trust in Ireland, said the staff and residents of the Aungier Street hostel were very traumatised by the events.
Mr Devoy was well known in the hostel and had been a regular resident since it opened before Christmas.
"There is a lot of grief here and we have to cope with that," Mr Duffin said. "Fran had his problems in life but he was well-liked and had a lot of friends here. Our priority is to make it through the weekend while coping with the grief."
A Garda spokesman said foul play was not suspected.
