Brother Kevin hailed for lifetime contribution to homeless

The founder of Dublin’s Capuchin Day Centre for the homeless has received plaudits as he retired at 87 years of age. Pope Francis visited the centre when he was here in 2018.

Br Kevin was “going to be well missed,” a volunteer told the Irish Times. “All the homeless people are going to miss him terrible. The staff, we’re all upset over the fact that he has to leave. He’s just a great man. He gave his life to all the homeless people. I’ve seen people come in on their knees in here and Br Kevin helping them all out till they got sorted,” she said. “So we’re all heartbroken.”

As a newly professed brother in Dublin in 1969, he began to notice homeless people. “I saw the people coming to our church. I saw the people walking the streets. I saw the people looking into dustbins and taking food out of the dustbins”. As a follower of St Francis “I decided something should be done for them.” It was the beginnings of the Capuchin Day Centre.

The centre has gone from 50 people when it started to now having 200 people for breakfast, 600/700 for lunch from Monday to Saturday.

It has also seen a sharp increase in demand for food parcels. “Again when we started giving out food parcels we had maybe 100, 200, and now we have maybe 1,000 or maybe more every Wednesday. As well as that we give out baby food, baby nappies on a Monday morning and we can have up to 200 families for those.”