Business leaders slept out en masse at Blackhall Place on Friday 12 October in solidarity with the 10,000 homeless people in Ireland.
They were joined by Law Society President Michael Quinlan who hosted the Focus Ireland Shine-A-Light fundraiser, as part of the Law Society's contribution to a nationwide fundraising drive for the charity. A total of €661,999 has been raised so far.
Focus Ireland helped 14,500 people last year enabling them to make “sustained exits” from homelessness, its founder Sister Stanislaus Kennedy explained at Blackhall Place on Friday night.
St Stan thanked the Law Society for its generosity in hosting the fundraiser and for helping to shine a light on this “horrific crisis” which she said is at its worst point ever in Ireland’s history, with 4,000 young children from 2,000 families living without a permanent home.
Awful
“We don’t have the language to express how awful the homeless crisis is,” said Sister Stan.
“No-one wants this life, no one chooses it, and there is no such thing as a typical homeless person.
“It is the deepest desire of every human person to have a home,” she said. “The homeless are snubbed and ignored and made to feel ashamed of their lives.”
Homelessness takes away a person’s pride and self-respect and self-esteem, she continued.
“We will never accept the narrative that this is just the way things are,” said St Stan.
“We need people with influence to change attitudes,” she said, pointing out that Focus Ireland is just a small voice among a multitude of social service agencies.
“It means a lot to me that the Law Society would make its premises and the Presidents' Hall available tonight,” she told Gazette.ie.
“Tonight is about generosity, about shining a light on homelessness and the Law Society is co-operating with that and enabling it to happen,” she said.
“People who are sleeping out here tonight are comfortable, but they are identifying and empathising with people who are not comfortable, because they are homeless,” she said.
Ethically-run charity
Participant Helen Kilroy, who is a McCann FitzGerald partner and has served at board level with Focus Point, said that it is a very ethically-run charity doing vitally important work.
Among the business leaders sleeping out on Friday were ByrneWallace managing partner Catherine Guy, publisher Norah Casey, broadcaster and businessman Bobby Kerr, Neil O’Driscoll of VStream and new Bord Gáis Ireland managing director, Oxford-educated Catherine O’Kelly.
Sr Stan concluded with a stark warning that next year will be even worse for homelessness and that the work of Focus Point is sadly needed more now than ever in its 33-year history.