Belfast Telegraph

Friday 26 December 2014

New York chill kills Irish woman

An Irish woman has reportedly frozen to death in New York.

Grace Farrell (35) is thought to be the first person to have died from the cold in the American city this winter.

It is thought Farrell, who had slept though a bitterly cold night wrapped only in thin blankets to protect her from the biting wind, died from exposure.

She was discovered near the front of St Brigid’s Church - founded by Irish immigrants fleeing the famine in the 1840s - in the Lower East Village area of Manhattan on Sunday morning.

A homeless friend named Tony, who claimed to have shared a meal with her the night before, said he discovered her body at 8am, according to reports in New York newspapers.

It is believed Farrell, originally from Co Cork, arrived in the US in 1993. At the age of 17 she had dreams of making it as an artist in New York, but a growing alcohol dependency and an abusive marriage left her homeless. It is thought she had a nine-year-old son.


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