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Irish Times
04-07-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
Allen Bobinac: ‘For four weeks, I was sleeping in Stephen's Green, surviving on one euro a day'
I come from a very small town on an island in Croatia . There weren't ever any opportunities there. I have a twin brother [Jay]. We come from a single-parent home – there were always a lot of issues – but I think we've always been inspired by the idea that you can go somewhere and make something out of yourself. I managed an apartment for a summer and was able to save a little bit of money, but there was only enough for one of us [twins] to go abroad and try to find work. That was going to be me. I came to Ireland in October of 2015 with a suitcase and a tent. That was it. I didn't have money to stay in a hotel or anything. I was walking from place to place, handing out my CVs. Mind you, there was nothing to put on [my CV], but that's what I was doing for the longest time. For four weeks, I was sleeping in Stephen's Green , and didn't meet anyone, but the biggest thing was when I came across a soup run. A huge burden came off my shoulders, because now I knew at least I wasn't going to starve. Before that, I was surviving on a little over €1 a day. I would buy cans of beans, peas, spaghetti hoops. Eventually, I was going to run out of money, but I didn't have a plan. When I came across the soup run, and later discovered there were all these homeless services, I knew things were going to work out. READ MORE Later on, I got a day's work with a fruit-picking company – Keelings – and I got paid €50. I used that money to get my brother over. Six months in, I started working as a kitchen porter in west Dublin . I was sleeping all over the city – sleeping outside – while working. A little bit down the road, we met Aubrey McCarthy , who's a senator now. He was very welcoming, but when you live on the street and come from the life that we had come from, you can't trust anyone, so [at first] we were suspicious that he wanted to help people. But through him we got into accommodation with the charity Tiglin. The concept is called transitional housing – you stay in an accommodation for a year initially, and if you're pursuing work and education and so forth you get to stay there longer. From living on the streets to being in college was only seven days apart for me. I ended up living on the streets for essentially 365 days, and then there was a new chapter. Since then, I've graduated with two master's degrees [in child, youth and family studies, and in international relations]. [Recently] my brother and I got awarded the Lord Mayor's award for our work with the homeless cafe in Dublin [The Lighthouse], where I've been working full time for three years as the manager. I started loads of new initiatives. We have live music. We're having an African day. We have a clothing market. When you bring in all these events, you attract people who live on the street, and you can work with them and ultimately get them off the street. Since the moment I came to Ireland there was this arrow of opportunity. It felt like: whatever you want is within arm's reach. My goal was to find work, so that was the lens through which I was looking at this. But that's what I felt from day one. Allen Bobinac: 'The world is a harsh place, and I've always seen Ireland as an oasis.' Photograph: The Irish Times The second thing is that it was very friendly. Coming from Croatia, the culture would be more eastern European. Irish culture is unique. Let's say you're walking down a busy street, and you bump into a person, and it's your fault. They will say 'I'm sorry'. In other countries that doesn't happen. The people [in Ireland], they have this energy. It's a tribe. It's very collective. There's something infectious about the people. There is nothing negative you can put on Ireland [in relation to] me being homeless. I was coming here with a mission, and being homeless was the byproduct of that. It was tough, but Ireland only gave me the best things. If you come to Ireland and you live on the street, you have everything you need besides your house. So how can you say anything bad about it? [ Homelessness reaches another record high, with more than 15,500 in emergency accommodation Opens in new window ] If you're talking about an empire, there's three stages. The first generation builds. They build all these amazing structures; they build a Colosseum. The second generation sees that work, but they enjoy the fruits of the labour. The third generation sees all these structures but doesn't see the work that went into it. In Ireland, there's still people who remember the hard times. I still meet people who were hungry when they were children. But there's [also] a generation who just remember the good times. The good times can become a curse. The world is a harsh place, and I've always seen Ireland as an oasis. You don't have to travel far to lose everything that we enjoy. As an immigrant, I feel a responsibility to contribute and preserve what's here. I see myself as one of the people here now – one of the tribe – and that's a great thing. In conversation with Niamh Donnelly. This interview, part of a series, was edited for clarity and length. For more information on Tiglin at the Lighthouse Homeless Cafe, visit . Allen is sharing his story as part of We Act, a campaign to celebrate Ireland's charities and community groups, and showcase the impact they have, across Ireland. Visit
Irish Independent
31-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Folk trio who became a viral sensation with expats deliver simple debut that gets under the skin
Both bands have grown their fan-bases so quickly thanks to the likes of TikTok that it will have come as a surprise to many that each are set to play headline shows at Dublin's 3Arena later this year. There are many, long-established household name acts here who will never be big enough to do that. Amble, a trio from Leitrim, Longford and Sligo, got together in Dublin in 2022 and found they had an easy rapport, especially when it comes to penning highly accessible, instantly hummable folk songs. Digital natives, teachers Robbie Cunningham and Ross McNerney and data scientist Oisín McCaffrey didn't need a marketeer to tell them about the power of social media. Soon, their songs were finding favour on TikTok, in particular, with one track, Lonely Island, favoured by Irish expats making videos about what they missed back home. Social media drove interest and they soon signed with Warner Music. Debut album Reverie is a likeable affair, stuffed with songs about love and belonging and the joys of being young. These aren't tracks that challenge the listener — such as those from Irish folk's leading lights Lankum — but they do get under the skin, easily, and it would take a churlish critic indeed not to appreciate the craft that's at play here. The songs are deceptively simple, mostly built around guitars and a mandolin and the vocals of Cunningham and McCaffrey, but it's easy to see why they work in the big arenas they now find themselves in. They toured with Hozier earlier this year. The bright, lovely Marlay Park celebrates new love with lyrics about summertime in Stephen's Green and a happy couple singing the Chili Peppers' Dani California 'walking down to Marlay Park'. Even songs with more sombre lyrical content, such as Ode to John, have a pleasing directness to them. 'The bundle in your arms I know/ It weighs the world… The moon can't face the sight/ Of our child alone.' Folk purists might argue that much of this album is more pop than folk, more redolent of the likes of the Coronas, for instance, than the sort of troubadours who cut their teeth in Dublin's Cobblestone. But a number of songs, including the quietly lovely title track and the more spirited Little White Chapel, underline their folk credentials. Rarely has a band's name been more suitable for the music they make. Reverie won't turn anyone's world on their head, but sometimes an amble through a well-made, sincere album is a pleasure in these fraught times.
