In life, Michael Byrne, known affectionately as âOld Man Belfieldâ for quietly roaming the UCD campus for three decades, had no home. In death, he is being gifted a âhome from home.â
The 71-year-old homeless man, who was found dead in a sleeping bag on the universityâs grounds on Monday, is being given a final resting place in the south Dublin countryside.
After seeing the outpouring on social media after his death, Kilternan Cemetery Park and Massey Bros funeral directors are giving him a funeral, burial, plot and headstone free of charge.
âIt is a fitting place because for a guy who lived out in the wild, under the stars and under the trees around UCD, he is going to a place like where he lived, a natural place. Our cemetery is out in the country. It is the same type of landscape,â said the cemeteryâs manager Rory Mulhall.