Tributes have been paid to former library worker who died in a tent in Dublin’s city centre last weekend after years of living on the streets.
Antonia Edgeworth, who was in her early 50s and was originally from Foxrock, Co Dublin, was found in an unresponsive state in a tent on Henry Street in the north city centre on Sunday morning.
The mother of one is understood to have been homeless for many years and to have struggled with addiction.
“Gardaí responded to the discovery of a body on Henry Street in Dublin city Centre on the morning of Sunday 11th October, 2026,” a Garda spokesman said.
“A postmortem will determine the course of the investigation.”
No foul play is suspected.
Dún Laoghaire independent councillor Hugh Lewis led tributes to her at a council meeting on Monday evening.
In a follow-up post on social media, he said: “Tragically, Antonia was found deceased on a Dublin street yesterday morning. She is another victim of the housing crisis and demonstrates the vulnerability that our homeless and rough sleepers face each night.
“Antonia was ... a well-known face in Dún Laoghaire town and friend to many.”
She is understood to have worked also in the now-closed Magic Carpet pub in Cabinteely and in Supervalu.
A friend, who did not wish to be named for fear of upsetting Antonia Edgeworth’s family, said she had “fond memories” of chatting with her in the old Dún Laoghaire library on Library Road, in the early 2000s.
“She was a lovely girl, a genuinely nice girl who would go out her way to help you find a book. She cared deeply about her family, especially her daughter,” said the friend.
The woman said Antonia Edgeworth had a private rented accommodation in the town which she lost, possibly due to rent arrears.
“I thought at the time: why did no one intervene to help her get a roof over her head? Anyone could see she was struggling.
“I met her by chance last year in Dublin, near the Ilac centre. She was so thin. It was freezing cold and I says to her: ‘What are you doing out here with just a sleeping bag?’ She said she was going to get herself together.
“And then a couple of weeks ago in Dún Laoghaire this girl [Edgeworth] comes up to me, gives me a hug. I told her to look after herself. I thought to myself though: ‘She is going to die if she stays out on the streets.’ It’s very sad. She hadn’t a bad bone in her body.”
Glenda Harrington, who runs the Friends Helping Friends soup kitchen on Tuesday nights in Dublin city centre saw the deceased last week. She described her as “funny” and “very well-spoken”.
“She was loud. You’d hear her coming, but there was no badness in her. The thing you’d always notice was she was so little. She also looked freezing,” she said.
“She was very much a loner, wouldn’t go into the hostels. She was scared of the hostels and to be honest, she was soft. She wouldn’t have done well in the hostels.”
In another tribute posted on social media, a former colleague said: “I worked with Antonia in SuperValu many years ago, she was such a lovely person.”
Another said she thought Antonia Edgeworth was “one of the nicest” she had ever met and that she had “the pleasure of having many chats with her; absolutely heartbreaking the way she passed away on our streets when she should have had a home”.
Antonia Edgeworth’s father Michael died in April 2024. He was described on his death notice as “beloved husband of Siobhan, loving dad of Ross and Antonia and a much-loved grandad of Breanna, Jake and Casey”.
Funeral details for his daughter are yet to be announced.