DAOINE
Orla and Diarmuid were the foireann on the street today.
Jeff and Lorie Schneider visiting Ireland again from the USA called in to say hello and, at our request, posed for another solidarity portrait.
A person that we know has been homeless not long ago put some money as a donation in our collection container. Often those who own the least give the highest percentage of their income to support good causes.
AIMSIR
Bhí sé ag bagairt báistí (threatening rain) ach d’fhan sí amach uainn (but it kept away from us). The weather is always an important consideration when working on the street, for the street traders and sanitation department working 7 or 8 hours a day and even for us, at two hours a week.
“HOW MANY SIGNATURES DO YOU NEED?”
This is a question we are often asked. We have well over 380,000 signatures on petition sheets and stopped counting them long ago. In some countries when you collect a certain number of signatures the objective has by law to go to the parliament to be discussed; this is not so in Ireland.
But in those countries also people have an ID number and they list it on the petition so it can be verified that they are not fake signatures etc. Here in Ireland we have not been keen to adopt ID numbers and the issuing has been opposed by the ICCL on the grounds of privacy.
Anyway signing gives people a sense of ownership of and participation in the campaign. We have presented the signatures symbolically to a number of Mayors of Dublin too and also stretched sello-taped-together signature sheets along the street for photo and video.
SHARE?
We still get people sometimes saying “I thought this was all won!” You can help keep people informed by sharing our posts on Facebook or from our website (smsfd.ie) from time to time.
