After he went missing, we never heard from him or saw him again. It seemed like he just disappeared off the face of the Earth. A group of friends we used to share believed he must have emigrated to America, but we weren t sure and we never found out what happened. Then, when I saw the newspaper articles and photographs last week, I thought, Here is a man with the same name as Michael and with strikingly similar features. I dug out the old photos of him when he was the best man at my wedding and they looked very alike.
Speaking at the service, Steve McCarthy, whose family watched out for Mr Byrne for over 30 years, paid a warm and moving tribute to him. Michael crossed our paths, probably 30 to 40 years ago. My parents were very good to him over the years and as it progressed, it filtered down, and over the last couple of years, I had the pleasure of keeping an eye on Michael,” he said.
“Michael led a long and simple life, never complex, always with good and honest intentions. Michael was born January 1949, and very possibly he may have passed on his birthday. He had spent most of his life here on the grounds of UCD.
“Michael Byrne, the homeless man affectionately known as ‘Old Man Belfield’, did not believe he was homeless because ‘UCD was his home’, his funeral Mass was told. The 71-year-old, who spent more than 40 years roaming the south Dublin campus and died while sleeping rough there on January 11th, was remembered by UCD chaplain Fr Eamonn Bourke at as ‘an important member of our community’ …” (more)
[Simon Carswell,