Singing his way to the top: Limerick man shares his homelessness journey

REPRESENTING Limerick in a nationwide radio initiative, one young Limerick man is singing to raise money for homeless charity Focus Ireland - which he has first hand experience with.

The Limerick singer, Robert Dawson, 21, has since opened up about his own previous homeless situation  in aid of Focus Ireland as part of nationwide initiative ‘Today FMs Big Busk’. 

The singer took to instagram and posted three paragraphs detailing his homeless story, which read: "Under circumstances beyond my control, I became homeless at the end of July 2022.

“My only saving grace was the fact my aftercare payment was due that same evening, so at least I’d have somewhere safe and warm for a few days.”

Big Busk for homelessness coming to Limerick

Opening up about where lived during this time, Robert said: "I lived in hotels and Airbnbs for about three weeks - I never disclosed this to a lot of people, but I feel it’s only right to tell my story, seeing as so many other people are brave enough to.”

Robert also highlighted how fast homelessness can occur and how long it can take to get out of the situation, saying that it took “only minutes for me to become homeless”, but that it took “weeks to find suitable accommodation”.

“I got very lucky to land in a youth homeless accommodation centre in Limerick.

“It was full of other individuals who also were going through the same situations as me, so it gave me great comfort to have a roof over my head and a sense of security.” 

Having made contact with Focus Ireland when he himself had no fixed abode, Robert knows first hand what the people who avail of these services go through and has a wider perspective now being able to fundraise for the charity through singing. 

When Focus Ireland assisted Robert in getting accommodation, he described it as “one of the happiest days of my life”.

“I moved in, in October, and I’ve been there ever since - I made it through the other side of my homeless journey and for that I will be forever grateful.

“It's ok to need help, it's ok to seek support - there is a major homelessness crisis in this country, and part of the problem is this built in stigma we have as humans,” Robert continued.

“If we can break that stigma and those who need help come forward we can make real progress.”

Robert has been releasing and performing original music since 2017 and has racked up over 20k streams on music app Spotify, most of which come from his song ‘Cannot Be Replaced’.