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The Lighthouse Homeless Cafe
Tiglin at the Lighthouse is a seven-day-a-week homeless café and outreach hub based in the heart of Dublin. It serves over 100,000 hot meals a year. It offers a warm, welcoming space for individuals experiencing homelessness, addiction, or social exclusion. More than just a café, it is a place of dignity, support, and community, where guests can access not only hot meals but also pathways to recovery and stability.
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In 2008, Tiglin began serving hot food to people sleeping rough on O'Connell Street from a mobile bus. The operation grew. In 2012, Tiglin moved into a permanent premises at 28 Pearse Street in Dublin 2. The café became a hub. The daily footfall grew into the thousands.
The Lighthouse is still built around the same idea it started with: show up for people nobody else is showing up for, and do it every single day. J ohn Young manages the operation. The team includes paid staff, Community Employment participants, and volunteers who give their time to keep the doors open 365 days a year.
Every person who comes in is a potential conversation with a staff member who knows the local services, can make a referral, or can begin an assessment into one of Tiglin's residential programmes. The café is the access point. What it opens into is the whole of Tiglin's network.
What We Offer
How the cafe supports the ones in need
Hot Food & Drinks
A hot meal served seven days a week, without conditions. For many guests, the Lighthouse is the only consistent, warm space available to them.
Clothing & essential supplies
A free weekly clothing drive where guests choose what they need.
Outreach & Advocacy
Tiglin staff go out to meet people where they are, in doorways, parks, and on the streets of Dublin. For people not yet ready to come in, the outreach team brings the Lighthouse to them.
Information, Support & Case Management
Staff can connect guests with emergency accommodation, housing supports, healthcare, and statutory services. For people navigating a fragmented system, having someone who knows it makes a real difference.
Assessment & referrals into rehab
The Lighthouse is an intake point for Tiglin's residential rehabilitation programmes. For someone ready to take that step, the process can begin in a place they already know and trust.
Community Employment
CE placements run through the Lighthouse, giving people in recovery or transitioning out of homelessness real work experience in a supported environment. Some of the people serving meals today were sitting on the other side of the counter not long ago.
Your questions, answered with honesty
How can I donate to support Tiglin?
Where does my donation go?
Can I volunteer with Tiglin?
How do I ensure the programs are effective?
Can I support a specific project of Tiglin's work?
