Garrett Greene, Workers’ Party representative in Dublin Central, has expressed deep sadness at the death yesterday of Brother Kevin Crowley of the Capuchin Day Centre in Dublin’s Bow Street.

Greene said: “Brother Kevin spent over half a century running the Day Centre providing morning and midday meals to hundreds of people every day. He deserves the highest praise for this work. However, many of the accolades heaped on Brother Kevin and his work by some of our leading politicians reek of rank hypocrisy.”

“It is because of the failure of these very same politicians, and their parties in government over many decades, that the work of Brother Kevin was necessary. These political parties have created and defended a system where an elite can, without any hesitation, ostentatiously spend hundreds of euros on lunch while, out of sight, hundreds of people queue for a hot meal just to get them through the day.”

“Brother Kevin operated his Capuchin Day Centre for over fifty five years and ensured that, even when he had to retire due to ill-health, a structure was in place to allow the centre to continue. The life of the centre started before Ireland joined the EEC/EU, continued through the so-called Celtic Tiger and now, when supposedly Ireland is among the richest countries on earth, the centre is busier than ever in its history.”

“In his last media interview in 2022, he stated that the centre was catering for 200 people for breakfast and 700 for lunch from Monday to Saturday. Every indication is that these figures have actually increased over the last three years. This is a terrible indictment of the society by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael who have, separately or together, governed this state for the last 103 years. These parties created the problems that Brother Kevin tried to remediate and their crocodile tears now for him should be seen as the meaningless PR gimmick that they are.”