Students from Belvedere College in Dublin have collected a record figure from their annual Christmas fund-raiser after controversy over the school's decision to cancel the traditional student sleep-out raised the profile of their campaign.
The students collected more than double the amount raised the year before. Cheques for nearly €90,000 were presented to homeless charities yesterday.
The annual sleep-out at College Green had to be cancelled over fears the teenagers could be prone to attack. School authorities said the large amounts of money collected could make them a target for thieves.
Instead, the sixth-year students raised money outside the Bank of Ireland during the day, returning to the school yard in Great Denmark Street to sleep behind the relative safety of the school gates on the two nights of the event. A school spokeswoman said the controversy may have raised the public's awareness of the campaign.
At a ceremony attended by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Cllr Dermot Lacey, yesterday, Father Peter McVerry received €68,000 for his charity for homeless boys. The national homeless charity, Focus Ireland, received €24,154 while €5,000 was given to the Los Angeles Society for the homeless.