The promoter of the Christmas Day Dinner for those in need, Sharon Smurfit, in a recent conversation with The Irish Catholic has highlighted the need for support during winter for those on the streets.
“A lot of the homeless unfortunately have drug addictions and we need to have more rehab centres in Ireland. We need more from the new government to help because believe it or not, a lot of them want to be helped. Sometimes they’re so bad they can’t understand anything. There are plenty of volunteers who are very happy to bring them to these centres. We need more of that in Ireland,” explained Ms Smurfit.
“We are going to need somebody to do something very fast. For the moment, we need to get people who are sleeping on the streets off the streets,” said Ms Smurfit. “In the UK and a lot of other European countries churches are opening their halls. All they would have to do is provide an area with plenty of volunteers – which there are because Irish people are very generous when it comes to help.”
“It is important to get the information [about the Christmas Day Dinner] to the people that need to know, if they’re lonely,” said Ms Smurfit, “It doesn’t matter whether we’re 100 years or 120 years or 150 years. We’ll be there on Christmas Day to help.”