Help Haiti!

About ten days ago FC Irlande and Belgium G.A.A. were summoned into action to raise money to send to Haiti in the wake of the recent disaster there. Everything happened so fast, it’s hard to know where exactly it all started. It’s fair to say Conchur de Barra, owner of de Valera’s Irish pub and Denis O’Sullivan, President of FC Irlande were to the fore. Both are members of the soccer and G.A.A. clubs and had the idea of uniting both clubs to leverage the considerable resources and creativity to benefit a very worthy cause.

Within days, the city had been bombarded with flyers and posters. Raffle tickets were selling as fast as the very hot FC Irlande Ladies calendar and cookies and brownies were being sold and being devoured by the hungry masses. One FCI member donated €3,200 and there were many other sizeable contributions via the specially set-up bank account.

The efforts culminate tonight in de Valera’s where every cent spent will be donated to Haiti and doubled by the pub. The soccer club had planned a bumper day at the home pitches with all 5 teams playing at home. However, mid-week, with snow forecasted, the league cancelled all games. On Friday, the club prepared a substitute fixture list and invited two of our arch rivals (Royal British and British United) to play the firsts and seconds. Belgium GAA were fixed to play FCI thirds whilst the fourths would lock horns with the Vets. However, we woke up to a snow covered Brussels this morning and the best laid plans were scuppered.

Unperturbed, club members were dispatched around the city in club colours to sell the calendars, cakes and everything else! It is unreal what has been raised already, €32,000 by lunchtime today!! With a jam packed pub tonight, the €40,000 target will surely have been blown away by midnight.

It has really been amazing what people have done in a short time period and is a great example of what can happen when you bring a bunch of people together for a common cause! Tonight, you will see the GAA fraternity joining the soccer fraternity for what should finish off a massive effort by all concerned.