Between 6pm on Saturday evening and 6am on Sunday morning, more than 400 current and former inter-county GAA players lay in their sleeping bags on the streets of Ireland.
Banded together as 'Gaelic Voices For Change', their hope was to raise awareness regarding the homeless crisis in Ireland. More tangibly, they have also raised considerable funds for homeless charities - more than €185,000.
In 13 different locations around the island - and beyond - names such as Dublin hurling manager Pat Gilroy, former Wexford captain Diarmuid Lyng, Clare hurler Podge Collins, former Dublin footballer Eamonn Fennell, Dublin footballer Sinead Finnegan and former Cork player Valerie Mulcahy slept out in solidarity with those who have no place to call their own.
Eamon O'Hara, the former Sligo footballer, slept out in Sligo town. While there, he met a man who had previously been homeless.
The motivation – change! Change the fact that we have families forced to move from home to a car or to the streets. The reaction of people in Sligo to us shows that they want change too. I’m over joyed and delighted that a group has come together and were willing to drive the message!
The reflection was simple, at 4:57am a gentleman approached our camp, his first four words caught everyone's attention, 'I was once homeless…' he went on to tell us how he got back on track and that every night, seven days a week, he makes sandwiches to bring around to the few homeless people he knows to make sure they’re ok!
His departing words summed it up for me when he said that small gestures will give you hope and that he was very proud of what the group were doing.
The event crossed the border, and an ocean. Former Monaghan footballer Ciaran 'Nudie' Hughes slept out in Times Square in New York.
"When you are in a position to help the less fortunate especially living away from home and seeing and hearing how bad things have gotten I felt it was only right to help out.
Being in Times Square for 12 hours in below freezing weather was frightening and hard to believe that people are actually sleeping in this cold weather.
This experience has made me realise how lucky I am and I will hopefully continue to carry out charity work in the near future."
Maurice Hanley, the former Dublin hurler, slept outside the GPO. He said it was a genuinely humbling experience.
"I went to the GPO to express solidarity with those suffering from a nation gone haywire and I learned a hell-of-a-lot from chatting to homeless people with real stories.
Woke up at about 5.30am as the rain was starting and said ament I lucky to have a proper bed in a real home to go home to and not face the streets of a city for another day of wondering where will I sleep tonight. Genuinely humbling."
You make a donation at GaelicVoicesForChange.com with all proceeds going to homeless charities.
