https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=568B5S0BqGo#t=240

Without looking at that, I must mention that, last summer, in Brighton, a doorway sleeper told me he would not accept accommodation offered because he could not take his dog. He also told me that a kind lady PC often gave him a sandwich when she was on early shift.
Different subject, years earlier, close to that doorway, I was asked for cash 'for a little ditty' by a jobless Irishman.I suggested he come to my place of work, where I would be part of a small team interviewing him for a job. He declined.

Dabbler
some time ago here in Munich a young lad, supposedly from East Europe was struggling through the precinct bent on crutches. Suddenly he straightened up, through the crutches away and ran in the opposite direction of an approaching police officer. Miracles never cease.
donald

I cannot believe how selfish you lot on here are. sitting comfortably with well filled bellys there seems to be a competition to see which one of you can come up with the best story to discredit homeless people. yes of course there are people who abuse the situation but I would guess that the vast majority of homeless people are just HOMELESS through no fault of their own. may I suggest that perhaps you should try living homeless for a week or working on one of the soup kitchens that try to alleviate their suffering a little bit. I think that a more fitting title for this forum would be LISBURN SMUG.COM.

I see you like a battle E.
i slept in a London Rowton House, a Manchester Sally Ann, in an entry in Lisburn - you?

No-one knows how people find themselves in difficult situations. We shouldn't judge. I cannot think that anyone would willingly want to spend a night "sleeping" on the street. We don't know their circumstances. One night I was watching a TV programme from the USA. One of the girls in the programme, who had a very good job, just happened to mention the fact that she and her friends were just one pay packet away from being on the streets, because of all their outlays during the month. It's a thought. "Walk a mile in my shoes" for a week and then judge.

Ann
you must cut the coat according to the cloth or to quote Mr Micawber in Oliver Twist "Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought and six, result misery."
We used to make fun of a Hilden gentleman because of his thriftiness, now thinking back he was doing the correct think living within his means.

donald with the well filled belly.

hello joe im sorry you had the unfortunate experience of being homeless. thank god I have never been in that situation. it doesn't mean that I am not aware of the utter humiliation and hopelessness that you and thousands like you must have felt. too many people use condemnation and derision as a screen for selfishness. the old adage I,m aright jack f u seems to be the norm today. it makes me so sad.

i stayed in the sally anns often enpugh when i went to dublin for the all ireland semi finals and finals@ 7 shillings and 6 pence was good value all i wanted was my head down on friday night and saturday night and breakfasts was as good as any

Barney, Eamon, (I'm Joe), and anyone reading this: I really do know about life. My family now think, and perhaps they're right, that I am becoming senile; I forget something two minutes after I do it, and I am often guilty of irrational and inappropriate behaviour. But I've tramped the Great North Road in snowy weather, pinched a can of fruit from a stall in Islington, seen a live show in the same borough in what may have been the last of the old Music Halls, and been drunk more often than I should; all long long ago, and, apart from the really drunken nights, all fresh in my memory.
Recently, as I took my laptop to be mended, I saw a lady leaving a branch of Sainsbury, and insisting that a young man get up from the pavement and move on. Old memories flooded in, and I called out to the lad and gave him a quid.Though a committed atheist, I felt blest when he used the words "Thanks and God bless"to me.
Completely different subject, but still me, me, me: The other day when I wrote that I was alone, I went out and bought a box of chocolates, and left them at the eye hospital, where a young lady had been pleasant to me.
When you're five three and half blind in one eye, you quickly learn, or sink.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=468584923295075&fref=nf

homeless man shot dead in LA

Donald, I am very familiar with Mr Micawber's saying. Every time I come home with a new outfit, Mr Micawber is quoted by Dominic. The logic is quite correct, but when I see something I can't resist, logic goes out of the window. As I say back to the said husband, "we haven't gone to the poor house yet". I saw a beautiful dress last week when we were up around Ballymena. Snapped it up and it feels great to wear. Mr Micawber didn't come into it.

Eamon you need to get your facts right I have worked to help homeless people for 40 years and believe me 95 percent don't want to work or find somewhere to live lets start calling a spade a spade and stop ***** footing around

hello Gordon if what you say is true(which I don't accept) doesn't it make it worthwhile to help 5% of them who are genuinely homeless. from your attitude if I was homeless I wouldn't want you in my corner. perhaps you should try harder and stop scoring cheap shots.

Dabbler, I doubt very much if you are becoming senile, judging only by your inputs of course. My memory, which was never great anyhow, has become worse, especially at remembering names and places. It's an ageing thing, just like the aches and pains and reduction in energy. SO, don't worry if you forget things - we all do.

seen tommey cordner on the homeless show spotlight last night
it can be seen on bbc 2 player

varney
I couldn't resist watchng this. A very interesting documentary. if that was indeed Thomas Cordner, he has lost the very distinctive strawberry birthmark that covered half his face.

We all have choices in life many a poor person has made something of themselves time to pull your head out of the sand and into the real world

where you sleeping to-night Gordon?

Barney, back again to check on Thomas Cordner. I did not recognise the man. As stated, Thomas, son of Ben, had a very pronounced birthmark on his face. The young Theresa McManus once told me that he was extremely conscious of it. Why do you say that it was him?

that was tommy singing at the end of the video it also showed him jogging to the dentist or docters at start and a few times during the show,no doubting it was tommy ok

Thanks Barney. That is very interesting to me. Thomas, as his dad called him, was a good amateur boxer at the Quay club. I last spoke to him in 1955 outside Napier's in Market Square.

Dabbler & Barney, I haven't yet looked at the video you mention. However, the last time I saw Thomas Cordner was a few months ago in a café in Lisburn. Pat and her daughter were with me at the time. Thomas, not knowing who we were at all, came over and began talking to us and getting quite agitated in the process, mostly to do with politicians. He was very confused and a sorry sight I have to confess. He was, apparently, a very clever man in the past but he seems to be suffering from some type of dementia now.

Ann, Thomas was a pleasant rational young man.The Tommy in that BBC2 documentary was the right age to be the one I knew, but I say again; Thomas Cordner had a very, very distinctive birthmark, that was not visible in the documentary.

i also remember that mark on tommys face probably has vanished with age now, but no doubting it tommy alright,he has also put on a lot of weight from i last seen himrunning in local half marathon

Barney, I sincerely thank you for your information. If anyone ever speaks to him, and he is not senile, he will remember our conversation outside the pub, and will remember Theresa chasing after him a few minutes later. He may NOT know that I sent her. memories...

Hi all. I watched that video just now about the homeless which had been shown on Spotlight. Sure enough, the homeless man jogging along the streets in Belfast was Thomas Cordner. God help him and the state he's now in, mentally and physically. Poor fella - I'm sure his mother would be distraught, although of course she's long gone. We just don't know how we'll end up, any of us. I think since that programme was made Thomas must have got the accommodation in Lisburn which he had mentioned. At least he's now back in familiar territory and that's why Pat and I got to see him in the café that day. God bless him.

Ann; Sad, but good to see Thomas alive. He told me he knew he was too old for Theresa, but they liked each other very much - and life is short.