[Dublin - May 15th 2024] Aubrey Mc Carthy, co-founder of homelessness and addiction charity Tiglin, was awarded the prestigious Red Cross Humanitarian of the Year Award 2024 at an event in Dublin last night.

Motivated by witnessing personal experiences that impacted his childhood with addiction in his family home, Aubrey McCarthy turned this trauma into hope and co-founded the charity Tiglin in 2008 to provide an exit route for people who were desperate to overcome the displacement that addiction had brought. 

Today, Tiglin has become more than rehabilitation. Currently within its care are over 50 people in supported housing, 45 in rehabilitation, over 100 sheltering from war and helping to feed and cloth more than 500 people each day who are homeless in Dublin through its centre at the Lighthouse on Dublin’s Pearse St. These unique and person-centred services and supports along with unique social enterprise cafes are much more than social services. They are described as ‘home’, ‘community’ and ‘dignity restoring’ by those who have benefited from their use. 

In accepting the award, Aubrey stated that “while I’m honoured to accept this award, I need to remember that the backdrop of this is the plight of homelessness, the separations of war and the disempowerment of addiction that too many people are facing in Ireland today”.