Barry Evans

Barry Evans

In October, 1986 a rather extraordinary man died and was buried in Dundalk.

He was Barry Evans, an Australian, who lived in a metal shoe box chained to the front pillar of the old Louth Hospital at the Crescent.

Exactly why a man, an only son from a middle class family, who once worked as a civil servant in his native country, should have ended his days at the age of 43 on the streets of Dundalk, a town to which he had no ancestral links, is still a mystery, even 20 years later.

In some ways his life has a parallel with “Wee Georgie” a Cork man who lived in Dundalk for many years in the 1930s and 1940s as a vagabond, and indeed there are those even to-day who confuse the pair.

But while “Wee Georgie” lived to an age reputed to be well over 100, Barry, in contrast, was a relatively young man when he died even though his appearance and gait would give the impression of a man twice his age.

It was rumoured during his time in Dundalk that Barry was an eccentric wealthy man, who had chosen his way of life to conceal his wealth. Nothing could be further from the truth for he lived, as those who knew him revealed afterwards, on disability pension from the Australian Government which would have amounted to no more than fifty Australian dollars.

He was however, and this was not revealed until after his death, a schizophrenic, a condition that first surfaced during his early manhood when he worked in Australia and had a nervous breakdown.

As far as can be told Barry being an only child was brought up in a rather confined environment in Australia. After school he entered the public service and worked in the explosives department in a State owned mine. It was around this time that he had a breakdown and the stigma of mental illness stayed with Barry for the rest of his life.

While in Australia he was involved in a motor cycle accident which resulted in his permanent limp for one leg was shorter than the other and he also lost an eye in the accident which necessitated him wearing a patch or blacked out glasses on one eye, all of which made his appearance more fascinating to the children in Dundalk who followed him around and sadly, on occasions, taunted him.

Apparently Barry became disillusioned with his life in Australia and landed first in England and then Ireland. It appears he lived in Dublin first but then moved to Belfast but for some reason, never explained by Barry, he ran foul of the British Government and was expelled. That decision greatly annoyed him and he wrote to leading figures such as Lord Gerry Fitt and Ian Paisley to have the decision reversed, all to no avail.

It was then, in 1978 that he turned up in Dundalk. Why Dundalk? Nobody really knows but he soon became a familiar figure round town. He lived first in the Simon Community, but was seriously assaulted while living there and sustained a fractured skull.

It appears that after this incident he took to living rough, preferring his own company, first making the archway in front of the old Louth hospital at The Crescent his home, even in the arctic winter of 1978/79. It was after that winter that he had built for himself his mobile tin shoe box which became the subject of national attention when it was featured in newspapers and TV, even making its way back to Australian media.

Barry had, at one stage, 25 locks by which he chained his tin box round a pillar in the hospital and had a whistle which he used to raise the alarm if he was mugged. A red Setter dog became his closest friend and Barry took it bad when the dog died.

At times Barry pulled his tin box round town and if he managed to obtain some food from a friendly shopkeeper or indeed a member of the public, he would stop what he was doing, park his tin box, light up his stove and cook his meal, even in front of a busy shopping centre, and ignoring the stares and laughs of passers-by.

Barry essentially was a loner and hated going into hospital at one stage when he needed treatment for a hand injury, but there were a few in the town, most notably members of the Garda who had great regard for Barry’s well being, and the Rev. Stanley Millen who at one stage gave Barry a room in his home after he was discharged from hospital.

Eventually Barry was convinced to abandon his tin box and live in a house in Chapel Street, but he was injured in a gas explosion, sustaining bad burns to his face. He later moved to Monaghan but his health deteriorated and he died on this month in 1986 after a fall outside of Castleblayney.

His friends in Dundalk took his remains back to Dundalk and paid for his funeral, his burial taking place on a grim afternoon with no more than ten people present. Some years later the same friends, at Rev. Millen’s instigation, paid for a headstone on his grave.

He is buried close to ‘Wee Georgie’ in St. Patrick’s Cemetery, two men who never harmed anyone but themselves and who were a source of fascination to people in Dundalk not just in life, but also in death.

Source: Rev. Stanley Millen

Barry and his Dog

That dog with Barry was actually my grandas dog George Elliott from Vincent Avenue. The dogs name was Fritz they were great buddies. He used go off with Barry during the day and come back in the evening 
Source:Elaine Orourke (McCrystal)

 He slept in the box in front of old Louth hospital in the metal box and in a car before that. We played there all the time as kids at first we were afraid of him until we got to know him. He never said a bad word to anyone. Then one day he was gone ,i think he moved back up to the North of Ireland again and died .
Source:Robbie Beatty
Arthur Burns He was found dead in Castleblayney