HIV Ireland to receive €25,000 following Sunday Times apology to family of Angelo Andreucetti

HIV Ireland has today welcomed the decision by the family of the late Angelo Andreucetti to nominate the charity as recipients of a €25,000 donation from the Sunday Times.

The newspaper agreed to make the donation following a printed apology concerning an article published by journalist Neil Francis on 8^thJanuary 2023 in which a litany of false and damaging claims were made about the life and death of Mr Andreucetti.

Following contact from the Andreucetti family the newspaper agreed to retract a litany of grossly inaccurate statements about Mr Andreucetti that he was “addicted to heroin, that he died in a heroin squat in London in the 1980s, destitute and friendless, and that his body, which was not found for days, was brought back to Dublin.”

Apologising for the hurt caused, the newspaper noted that Mr Andreucetti had in fact “died from an AIDS-related illness, and not a heroin addiction, in a Middlesex hospital in August 1994 aged 32, with friends and family at his bedside.”

The paper also noted that he had been buried in London and not Dublin, as incorrectly stated.

Welcoming the decision of the family to nominate the charity as recipients of the donation, HIV Ireland Executive Director Mr Stephen O’Hare said “This is an extraordinary gesture by the Andreucetti family following what must have been a very hurtful and distressing experience.

“Not only were the claims in the article shown to be false”, said Mr O’Hare, “they perpetuate, by their very nature, the sort of stigma and shame that has dogged experiences of both HIV and addiction for decades.

“It is therefore fitting that we mark today 1^st March, known internationally as Zero Discrimination Day, by welcoming this profound gesture which arose from such a stigmatising and discriminatory attitude”, he added.

Expressing the gratitude of the organisation for the family’s nomination, Mr O’Hare said “The money will be used to support the work of Ireland’s recently established National Peer Support Network for People Living with HIV which aims to provide one-to-one peer support at a local level including, in particular, for those who are newly diagnosed with HIV”.

“We are beyond grateful to Mr Andreucetti’s family and pledge to honour Angelo’s legacy by continuing to provide support, combat stigma and foster inclusion in partnership with the community of people living with HIV in Ireland”, he added.

HIV Ireland’s  National Peer Support Network for People Living with HIV is coordinated by HIV Ireland’s Community Support programme in collaboration with Positive Now – the All-Island Network for People Living with HIV and Positive Life in Northern Ireland. Activities include ongoing training and supervision for peer volunteers who, in turn, provide one-to-one peer support for people living with HIV in communities across the country.