National - Event Notice
Thursday January 01 1970

Kick off Homelessness Sleepout @ GPO

national | miscellaneous | event notice

Monday April 19, 2004 12:51

by Jon Glackin - Kick off Homelessness

issues at eircom dot net

00447743275533

Anyone fancy a game of football????

A group of Students from the Liberties College in Dublin have come together 'united' in their desire to Kick off Homelessness and show their support for the Irish Homeless street-soccer team as they prepare for the Homeless World Cup that will be held in Gothenburg, Sweden in July.

The students will be holding a ‘sleep out’ and public Collection outside the GPO, O'Connell Street, Dublin on Thursday 22 April starting at 3 p.m.

The students got together with Irelands Issues magazine to raise awareness and funds for the ‘Kick off Homelessness Campaign’ with this ‘sleep out’ and public Collection at the GPO. They are appealing to the general public and local business’s to come down and show their support as they brave the elements in solidarity with those living on the streets in this country..

A host of celebrities and Politicians will be attending the launch of this event and a special football match has been arranged on the day!

The Kick off Homelessness campaign was the brainchild of Irelands Issues Magazine in an attempt to use the universal sport of football to address some of the issues that arise due to homelessness.

Last year they successfully entered a team into the inaugural Homeless World Cup held in Graz, Austria where a group of 10 homeless men represented Ireland officially recognised by the FAI

Initiated Street-soccer league in Dublin where up to 100 homeless men and women participate, supported by Dublin City Council the FAI and all the Homeless Agencies such as Focus and the Simon Community amongst others, with similar leagues springing up in Limerick, Belfast and Cork.

Held a national tournament in Tallaght Dublin with teams from all over the country competing for the Issues Kick off Homelessness Trophy.

Already the project has been successful in association with the FAI in setting up recognised FAI coaching and refereeing courses with a number of homeless people achieving qualifications and increased involvement with the game with all the ensuing benefits.

Wes Murdiff, organiser and student at Liberties College stated...
“Having been involved in the creation of the Dublin Street Soccer league I have seen at first hand the benefits of this campaign in the lives of many homeless people in the city. We need to raise urgent funds to keep the project alive and develop it nationally. The sleep out will give us an opportunity to raise awareness of the project and help get a team of homeless people to represent their country out to Sweden. I appeal to the general public to drop down and show their support for this worthy cause...”

Sean Kavanagh, Editor Ireland’s Issues Magazine added...
“We have seen over the last year the tangible benefits of the Kick off Homelessness campaign in the lives of a lot of homeless people. For so many homeless people in this country with limited opportunities the soccer has given them added purpose, confidence, comradery and indeed an opportunity to find employment. We are very grateful to the students from the College who will be sleeping out on Thursday to raise much-needed funds for the leagues and World Cup preparations. Too often we turn a blind eye to the existence of homeless people in this country, a high profile event such as this shows that together we can kick off Homelessness...”

Speaking prior to the sleep out Fr. Peter McVerry said…
“ One of the issues for homeless people is the loss of dignity and loss of self respect both because of their situation and the way that they are treated by society so any thing that can contribute to the increasing dignity and self respect of homeless people such as this soccer tournament is wonderful it goes to the very core of the problem of homelessness…I fully support this as a way of giving homeless people back some of their dignity and a sense that they are just as important members of society as anybody else”

For any further information, images or interview requests please contact:

Jon Glackin (Co-ordinator) 0044 7743275533 / issues@eircom.net
Sean Kavanagh 087 2238108
Wess Murdiff 087 6194706