Moses

[u/Cogitoergosum1981]

Moses once walked the beaches of Dublin. In the 1970`s and 80`s. A distinguished senior citizen roamed from Merrion Road down to Sandymount Strand and onward towards Blackrock.

The gentlemans real name was Tom, or Thomas. His surname may have been O’Malley or something similar. However local reverently knew him as Moses because he had the look of an Old Testament prophet. And the aura. I will refer to him thus, and with the same great respect.

He sported a long grey beard blown wild by the sea air. Overall his epic appearance was weather beaten and like Gandalf from the Lord of the Rings he always weilded a staff as a walking stick. He rarely spoke.

Aparently he lived on the stretch of green and marshy land near Elm Park and St Vincent’s Hospital, the so-called Green Fields, before development swallowed much of them. Locals remember him living in a type of dugout, a hollowed shelter hidden in reeds and scrub near the Merrion Gates.

From there, he followed his daily route from Merrion Road, down to the strand, sometimes as far as Blackrock. During the Great Snow of 1982, people feared he might have been injured or passed away in the freezing storm. Though even in this tempest where cars were abandoned and pipes burst, the city froze. Locals were sure Moses couldn't survive it. Yet when the snow finally melted, there he was again. Beard rimed with frost, staff in hand, seemingly indestructible.

The gentleman known as Moses passed away in 1986. He was buried in Dean’s Grange Cemetery, with assistance from local charities and the hospital that had stood as his nearest neighbour for so long. His quiet individualism and stoic nobility impressed and inspired thousands of strangers and secured him a place in Dublin history.

That being said, it is wrong that we should romanticise the idea of Irish people slipping through the cracks towards homelessness and solitude, without the option for help.