Brother Kevin Crowley, founder of Dublin’s Capuchin Day Centre, has died – 1v1 Video Chat & LIve Streaming & Influencer Subscription

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Father Kevin Crowley.

Brother Kevin Crowley, founder of Dublin’s Capuchin Day Centre, has died

The lifelong humanitarian helped thousands of people through his work and the work of his team.

11.44am, 2 Jul 2025

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THE FOUNDER OF the Capuchin Day Centre for Homeless People in Dublin City Brother Kevin Crowley has passed away, it’s been confirmed.

The esteemed humanitarian founded the organisation in 1969. It provides over 1,000 hot meals each day and more than 1,450 food parcels each week to those in need and those who are homeless.

Brother Kevin was a Capuchin Friar who devoted his life to supporting people living in poverty and in food need.

Today Archbishop of Dublin Dermot Farrell announced Brother Kevin’s passing.

He offered his “sincere sympathy” to Brother Kevin’s family and his Capuchin Confréres on his death.

Brother Kevin devoted his life to the service of the poor. His work with the Capuchin Day Centre staff and volunteers transformed the lives of the poor and marginalised in our city who availed of its services, from misery and despair to hope and love.

He was always able to see Christ in the people he met,” the Archbishop added.

He said that as we mourn Brother Kevin, he would want us to “remember the poor we still have with us in ever greater numbers because of homelessness, wars, famine and the multiplicity of addictions that affect our county today.”

Brother Kevin was orginally from Enniskeane in Co. Cork. In his early days as a friar he worked in the Co-operative Clothing Guild for unemployed persons and families in Dublin.

In 1969 he had the small Guild offices on Bow Street reconstructed to create the day centre, with its chief purpose being to ‘relieve the hardship endured by homeless people”.

The centre went on to become a core part of homelessness supports in Dublin. In recent years, it has also extended its support to international protection applicants who were living homeless in the city.

In 2018 the late Pope Francis visited the centre and met service users, and said that the Capuchins are “especially attuned with the people of God, and indeed with the poor”.

Father Kevin Crowley meeting Pope Francis.

Brother Kevin retired in 2022 at the age of 87.

On his retirement President Michael D. Higgins said that Brother Kevin had led an “invaluable service that is providing essential food and compassion to those most in need in our capital city”.

He praised Brother Kevin and his team for their “great spirit of shared humanity and determined pursuit of dignity, their practical work in the delivery of human rights for all our fellow citizens.”

At the tome. Archbishop of Dublin Dermot Farrell said Brother Kevin had “devoted his life to the service of the poor”.

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