MRS Brown’s Boys star Brendan O’Carroll has offered to pay for the funeral costs of a homeless man in Co. Clare who was found dead on Christmas Day.
Marek Skiba, 51, from Poland died from a heart attack, and his body has since remained in a morgue, due to the costs of organising his funeral.
The man’s plight was aired to listeners of RTÉ’s famous Liveline show, when homelessness campaigner Josie O’Brien told presenter Joe Duffy about the lack of funds available for his burial.
“His body has just been sitting in a morgue in Limerick since he was found on Christmas Day,” said Ms O’Brien.
She said that she had met Mr Skiba, who was well known around Ennis, Co. Clare, when he attended a Christmas dinner she hosted for the homeless in 2008.
According to The Irish Times, Mr Skiba arrived in Mallow, Co Cork, 15 years ago and worked in construction.
A Garda spokesman confirmed that a postmortem had been carried out and that the death is not being treated as suspicious.
Ms O’Brien added that there had been no offers to cover the costs of Mr Skiba’s funeral and burial arrangements.
“They can’t bury him without the money,” she said. “The funeral director wouldn’t do it unless he is paid up front. He has buried a few homeless people but he hasn’t been paid for them so I don’t blame him.”
Whilst she said that Clare County Council had offered a plot in Ennis for the burial and local undertaker Cyril Cusack said he would organise the funeral arrangements for free, listeners were told that O’Carroll had offered his help.
“He’s been on to us from Florida saying he will pay for the burial of that Polish man from Ennis,” said Mr Duffy.
“It looks like we’ve enough support down there at the moment. He says he will make all the arrangement and he will cover whatever needs to be covered.”
