CLLR Paul Hayes and his brother, Kevin, slept out at Asna Square last Friday night-Saturday morning as part of the countrywide Focus Ireland Sleep-out for Homelessness.
Setting up a tent for shelter at 7.30pm they stayed the whole night until 7am on Saturday morning to raise awareness of the homeless issue and also to accept donations from people who called during the 12 hours. The brothers were overwhelmed by the kindness of local businesses that arrived with hot drinks (non-alcoholic) and food as well as the monetary donations.
On the ‘Late Late Show’ on RTÉ the same night, former Kilkenny hurling star Henry Shefflin spoke about the work of Focus Ireland and his own experience volunteering with street food distribution to the homeless in Dublin recently. This apparently spurred on a few people locally to make donations to the Clon sleep-out.
With the physical contributions and those made online for the cause, the Hayes’s were delighted that they had raised over €3,000 by Sunday. The online donation link will still accept donations at https://shine-a-light-night-2020.everydayhero.com
More updates can be found on the Cllr Paul Hayes Facebook page.
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