Belfast bus driver Paul Doyle has been praised by thousands for his kindness to a homeless man after a student who was riding his bus posted about his caring act on Facebook.
AnnaMarie McDaniel described in a Facebook post on the wall of Translink, the Northern Ireland transport company, how the driver stopped the bus beside a homeless man who was soaked in the rain. The driver handed him a plastic bag with a winter coat that he had bought for him.
(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));On the bus home from university there, absolutely miserable wet and cold night. I get the same bus every Tuesday and...Posted by AnnaMarie McDaniel on Tuesday, November 10, 2015
As of Wednesday afternoon, more than 66,000 people had liked the post. Almost 2,000 comments mostly praised him and said how cheered they were to read the story.
Michael Dornan, the driver representative for the Unite union, told Belfast Live: "Paul is a very laid-back, reserved and quiet person. He told me he had repeatedly seen this young man standing in terrible conditions with no coat and his clothes were very thin.
"This particular day he just said he thought he would try and help and look after him. He put it in a bag with some food. The young lad got very emotional and broke down.
"He is very humble and he is taken aback by the amount of people who have responded to it."
Dornan added: "Paul would never have wanted any publicity on it. It was only somebody had seen him doing it."
The student who posted the story, McDaniel, told the Belfast Telegraph that she's been overwhelmed with the response to her post. "My phone has gone into meltdown. And there have been so many positive comments on my Facebook page. And I've had over 90 friends requests," she said.
We’re all really proud of our colleague who, last night, showed great kindness to someone in need. Many thanks for all your comments!— Translink (@Translink_NI) November 11, 2015
The Union representative said it's not unknown for Metro drivers to do these types of kind acts. "We as a Union intend to do something on the run-up to Christmas for homeless people, to help them in some way. They seem to be the forgotten people of Belfast, especially coming up to Christmas."