US Presidential visit thwarts efforts of Portlaoise homeless charity

A Portlaoise based homeless charity has cancelled its visit to Dublin due to the security around US President Joe Biden’s visit. 

“Unfortunately we have to cancel tonight's trip to Dublin.  A lot of the roads/streets we travel through and on  will be closed this evening due to the visit of the US President,” Portlaoise based PATH(Portlaoise Action To Homelessness) posted online. The charity has been delivering food to the homeless in Dublin since 2015.  

The charity travels to Dublin every Wednesday and Saturday night to donate food to the homeless but security around the US President’s visit has caused difficulties for the charity.  

PATH Committee member Irene Redmond said they would usually feed between 90 and 100 people on a Wednesday. She said that figure rises to between 150 and 200 on a Saturday. The charity is supported by local Laois businesses like M&M Catering, The Hares Corner who take it in turns to cook on Wednesdays and Treacy’s of the Health, who supply one of the favourite dishes known in Dublin as “the Portlaoise stew” on Saturdays, she said. 

“The area where we park up beside St Stephens Green will be closed off completely so we won't get anywhere near to it. We also expect that our homeless friends will be kept well out of sight and we expect our homeless van would also be moved on,” PATH stated.

Irene believes the homeless who live in Dublin city centre will be moved to the outskirts well out o fsight of visiting dignitaries and press. “They won’t be visible on the streets,” she said.   

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“We have contacted a few of our regulars and they will make sure the word filters through so that people are not left waiting on us,” PATH stated. 

PATH will be returning to Dublin to deliver food as usual on Saturday as usual.