A happy Christmas for Sabrina and Joe?

IN THE exact same spot where we found them last year, Sabrina and Joe remain, in the secluded corner of a Dublin park.

The bedraggled and ripped tent that they had called home has been replaced through the kindness of strangers who were moved by our story highlighting their situation, but otherwise the only thing that has changed is the additon of a little dog.

Sabrina (38) and Joe (62) had already been living in the park for almost a year when we interviewed them in February. They told us then how they had spent that Christmas in the tent as families living across the road nearby settled in for a cosy Christmas around the home fire.

Now, shockingly, after another year in the tent they face another festive season, cold and alone and increasingly desperate.

My colleague and Southside People photographer, Darren Kinsella, who admits to having been personally affected by their plight, spoke to them last week.

Darren asked them where they would be spending Christmas.

“We will be spending Christmas here, with the dog,” Sabrina told him.

“Will any of the charities bring you dinner?,” asked Darren.

“No,” Sabrina stated. “They haven’t been here for months but that has stopped now.”

When Darren asked Sabrina how she prepared food, Sabrina revealed: “I have a few bits there to cook, but it’s a struggle due to the rats and last night the dog frightened off a fox so we have to be careful of that.”

And as for what they will be sitting down to eat on Christmas Day, Sabrina said she didn’t know.

“Last year we had rashers and some sausages, but I don’t know yet,” she added.

Darren offered to make contact with a homeless charity to see if they would be prepared to bring them food.

He also described how their living conditions have not improved since we last saw them.

“There are discarded gas canisters scattered around their tent,” Darren found.

“Since our previous visit the bushes that had offered some shelter have lost a lot of the leaves so they are more exposed now.”

Sabrina and Joe had previously told us of their futile efforts to get help but faced with endless housing waiting lists and dangerous hostels, they finally ended up here, in this sodden tent, in the corner of a lonely park.

Clearly, apart from the little dog they have to keep them company, nothing has changed for them.

They are just two of many of our citizens who face a night without a roof over their heads, although they at least have a thin sheet of canvas to protect them from the worst of the elements.

And clearly the chances of anything changing for them, for the better, are slim to none.

As I write this I have no doubt that come Christmas 2017, we will be visiting them again.

Two forgotten people in the dank corner of a lonely park in a city that has moved on, leaving its most vulnerable citizens behind.