ARMED WITH just a toothbrush, sleeping bag and several layers of clothing each, 80 present and past pupils from Belvedere College in north Dublin city have so far raised €50,000 for homeless charities in their annual sleepout.
Braving freezing temperatures, the boys have spent two nights on Dublin’s O’Connell Street, at the GPO – a second group are stationed at the Central Bank – and will go home this evening.
Now in its 25th year, participants in the annual sleepout hope to break the record of €127,000 that was raised last year. Despite fears that the recession would lead to a tighter collection, pupils feel the opposite is happening.
“We collect from dawn till dusk, just shaking buckets and trying to engage people . . . they have been really generous,” says Seán MacGabhann, from Dundrum, one of the organisers of the charity event.
The pupils are optimistic they will collect more than last year, but a final figure will not be available until January. The cash will go to Focus Ireland, the Peter McVerry Trust and Home Again.
“The experience has been good. It’s been cold, very cold; it’s different. It’s given me a better appreciation for my own life, and a new perspective. This is what they have to live with every day,” said Stephen Garry, a sixth-year pupil from Clontarf.
The pupils were not fazed at the prospects of sleeping in temperatures of minus 8 degrees last night, hoping to combat the cold with layered clothing and collective body heat by “cramming in to one another”. They have received few negative responses from homeless people. One pupil spoke of a homeless man who “took money out of his cup and put it in our buckets. We were in shock, we didn’t know what to say.”
Another 40 past pupils slept outside the Bank of Ireland on College Green. Patrick Flanagan (24), a student at John Hopkins University campus in Bologna, said: “I did it the first year I left school. It’s cold, but when there’s this many people taking part it’s not as difficult. It lasts for 48 hours, so you only get a glimpse of what homeless life is like.”
The Dublin Simon Community has said the recent cold weather is “very worrying” for people living rough. “The majority of people we are working with already have physical health conditions, respiratory being very common . . . the cold weather is exacerbating this,” said Lorna Cronnelly.
As part of their Cold Weather Strategy, some of Dublin’s homeless agencies have been encouraging rough sleepers to avail of emergency accommodation in hostels. Those who choose to remain outside are being given “survival packs” of scarves, hats, gloves, undergarments and sleeping mats.