The people of Cork have come together to pay the funeral costs of a 36-year-old woman who was assaulted by up to three individuals as she left a soup kitchen in the city on December 1st.
Vanessa O’Callaghan had just been given a sleeping bag and food by the Kindness Krew volunteers when she was attacked in Patrick Street. She died three days later in hospital.
Close to €6,000 has been raised since Wednesday to help ease the financial burden of her mother Ellen. Ellen has suffered the loss of four of her ten children.
The organiser of the GoFundMe, Shelly O’Callaghan, said Vanessa started to experience struggles when her brother Shane died when she was just 18 years old.
“She never came back from this. Anyone that knew Vanessa she had a heart of gold, always had a smile or wink to give to everyone.
"She had her own struggles but she would lighten up anyones day with her beautiful sense of humour and personality.
"I have set up this Go Fund Me to get the burden off her mother for the cost of the funeral. If there is any funds left over it will be divided between her three children.”
Ms O’Callaghan was predeceased by her father John and three of her five brothers.
Her sister Linda O’Callaghan previously told Paul Byrne, on Cork’s 96FM, that Vanessa had spent years on the streets of Cork.
Poignantly, when Linda went in to say her last goodbyes to her younger sibling in hospital she could not help but notice that she was in a comfortable bed.
“I told her to sleep easy. I said ‘at least you are in a bed now today girl’ because she was in a nice bed. I stroked her feet and her hair. Marcella (my sister) spoke to her. We talked about when she was young.
"(She is in a better place) from the life she has been leading the last twenty odd years. She is safe now in the arms of her Dad and her brothers.”
Ms O’Callaghan has called for more garda resources to patrol the streets of Cork whilst appealing to the local authority to open a special shelter for homeless people this Christmas.
Vanessa O’Callaghan is survived by her children Chelsea, Jerry and Kyle, her mother Ellen, and her siblings Linda, Marcella, Aisling, Claudia, Ian and Damian.
No arrests have been made but the garda investigation in to the passing of Ms O’Callaghan is ongoing.
Volunteers at the soup kitchen described her as having been a “quiet and mannerly” woman.
Donations to the GoFundMe can be made here.
