By Jason Quigley  

The plight of homelessness has been brought glaringly home to the people of Nenagh with a destitute man living in a tent on the town’s main street for two years. 

The man’s tent located on Pearse Street Nenagh. 

Photo: Jason Quigley 

The man, in his early 50’s, who agreed to speak under the condition of anonymity, said that he has no hope left and will eventually end up dying on the street. 

The man, originally from Ballinasloe in Co Galway, became homeless over ten years ago and arrived in Nenagh in 2022. He has been sleeping rough ever since, alongside his small dog, in a tent located in the town centre. 

“I’ve been in emergency accommodation, it’s all overcrowded and I need somewhere safe,” he said. 

“At my age, I don’t want to be dumped into homeless accommodation where there could be drugs and fights – I’m not going to be associated with that behaviour.” 

The man has claimed that Tipperary County Council told him to move the tent off the street. However, he says he’s staying put. “I’m going to get a mattress and lay outside the front door of the council building until I’m listened to.  

“There’s a few others in the same situation like myself,” he said. 

He stated that the town of Ballinasloe is not safe for homeless people and he feels “safer in Nenagh”. The man said, “I don’t sleep at nighttime and go to bed at five in morning when everyone is waking up and the birds start whistling. 

“I haven’t experienced any hassle from anyone, no one really bothers me.” 

“I’ve no hope anymore, I’ve been doing this for ten years and can’t get anywhere. You give up believing when you’re in my situation, I won’t keep my hopes up,” he said. 

Local homelessness volunteer, Maura Finn, believes more needs to be done to help this “vulnerable man” and people should not be worried about the man’s dog who is “everything to him.” 

“They won’t allow him to enter any sort of accommodation with his dog. The dog is his only companion and protects him at night on the street,” she said.  

Nenagh Sinn Féin representative Damian O’ Donoghue has described the alarming increase of homelessness in Co Tipperary as a “worrying and dire situation”. 

Mr O Donoghue believes that the crisis needs to be treated as a “national emergency” and that the situation is “worse than it’s ever been”. He went on to say that the noticeable sightings of tents across Nenagh and North Tipperary was unacceptable and grim. 

“The biggest problem with this situation over the last few months has been eviction notices from landlords,” said Mr O Donoghue. 

“People are then put into a situation where they can’t find alternative accommodation in their area. Couples who are on relatively good incomes are struggling to find anything – this is placing many people into stressful and extremely difficult situations.” 

Mr O Donoghue added: “I’m dealing with up to ten families now who have an eviction notice hanging over their heads, other councillors and politicians in the region are dealing with much higher numbers. 

“There’s also many people who are too afraid to come forward to seek emergency accommodation services in the county.” 

He said that, ” we haven’t been building houses properly for the last few decades – which is a systematic failure from the government.” 

However, Mr O Donoghue believes that Tipperary County Council aren’t receiving enough state funding from the government. “There’s a number of vacant council homes in Borrisokane and the surrounding areas which are currently being redeveloped, but there needs to be a faster approach from the council to these renovations. 

“There’s so many derelict houses in every town in Tipperary and they all need to be urgently identified and tackled by the council. The cost of living is making it harder for couples to put down a deposit for a house, which then causes a massive domino effect on the situation. The homeless crisis in the area will unfortunately continue to degrade for another while longer. But we need houses built urgently and we need them built now,” Mr O Donoghue concluded.