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“He was a really brilliant helper, really brilliant person. The best kind. He did a lot for the people.”
There was shock and sadness at the Capuchin Day Centre this afternoon after the announcement of the death of Brother Kevin Crowley, the friar who founded the well-known meals service.
For years, the centre has provided thousands of hot meals to homeless people and people in poverty, and Brother Kevin has been a familiar face and respected humanitarian figure.
Outside the centre today, on a sunny afternoon on Bow Street, Dublin 7, The Journal spoke to people queueing ahead of its lunch service.
For several of them, it was how they learned that Brother Kevin had passed away, and the news was met with sorrow.
Three men in the queue together were very shocked to learn that he had died.
“I met him here umpteen times,” said Michael, one of the men.
One woman, Samita, said: “Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that.”
“He was very good. 17 years, I knew him,” she said.
“I remember him for years. He was a really brilliant helper, really brilliant person. The best kind. He did a lot for the people.”
Another man and woman in the queue hadn’t met Brother Kevin personally but knew who he was and the significance of his work.
They said they were very sad to learn of his passing.
Brother Kevin was a Capuchin Friar who founded the Day Centre in Dublin in 1969.
Since then, it has been an important resource for people in need in Dublin city.
As well as daily hot meals, it’s known for providing help around Christmas time through food parcels and food vouchers, a service which has seen an increase in demand in recent years.
The centre was visited by the late Pope Francis in 2018 during his trip to Ireland. His papal namesake, St Francis of Assisi, known for charitable works, was also the inspiration for the founding of the Capuchin Day Centre.
Brother Kevin was at its helm from its founding in 1969 up until he retired in 2022 at the age of 87.
He was a vocal advocate for the rights of homeless people and criticised the government’s failures in housing policy on several occasions over the years.
In 2018, he made clear his disapproval of the decision to move people staying in emergency accommodation in Dublin to outside of the city centre during Pope Francis’s visit.
“I feel absolutely disgusted to think that Pope Francis is being used for getting these people out of emergency accommodation,” Brother Kevin said at the time.
“If there’s one thing for certain, that’s one of the things that Pope Francis would be entirely against,” he said.
The following year, he described the housing crisis as “appalling” and called on the government to ramp up action to address it.
“Each person should have their own home, they should have a key to their own door, and that’s not being done. Money is being wasted ridiculously otherwise and [Government is] not putting it where they should be putting it,” he said.
President Michael D. Higgins paid tribute to Brother Kevin this afternoon, describing him as a “warm, caring, yet fearless man, who dedicated his life to living his Christian faith in dedication to those most in need”.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin said he was a “tireless and passionate advocate for justice” who “dedicated his life to helping those in need”, while Tánaiste Simon Harris said he was “one of life’s true heroes”.
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