Another record-breaking Belvo SleepOut

January 9, 2025 in Featured News, News

The 41st annual Belvedere SleepOut » that took place at the Bank of Ireland College Green, Dublin, from Sunday 22 December at 12pm until Christmas Eve at noon, Tuesday 24 December 2024 was yet another record breaking SleepOut. Last year, Belvedere students raised a record-breaking €330,791.67. This year 280 students from Belvedere College SJ, in Dublin’s North Inner City took to the streets to again to raise much needed funds for Focus Ireland and the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS Ireland.) Transition years students from the college had already done a SleepOut in their gardens and raised €100,000.

Hugh Fagan, Belvedere student and one of the SleepOut 25 team says, ” We are very proud and thrilled to announce the total figure raised this year of €346,418.72. It’s another record- breaking amount. We are extremely thankful to the general public for their support and generosity and want to thank everyone who donated to this very important cause. We are also very grateful to the parents and staff who joined us on the Sleep-Out and to the Gardaí from Store Street station who looked after us over the course of the Sleep-Out. While this is remarkable achievement, our thoughts are with the over 15,000 people who are sleeping on the streets.”

The SleepOut took place at the end of a year when homelessness levels reached an all-time high. And in the early days of January the freezing weather meant life-threatening conditions for those sleeping rough outdoors. In an interview on RTE Radio One Eugene Quinn, Director of JRS Ireland paid tribute to the students and to the many generous people who supported them. He said the money they raised was enabling JRS to help asylum seekers in dire straits accommodation wise.

In 2024, Focus Ireland, extended aid to 18,000 people, including 1,757 families. The SleepOut 24 team says that the charity’s work is crucial in addressing the escalating homelessness crisis.

American actor Paul Rudd and singer songwriter Nick Jonas sent a video message of support for this 41st annual Belvedere SleepOut. Irish actors Jack Raynor and Amy Huberman are also pitched in to support the students who fasted for the two days as well as sleeping out overnight.

Also, for the first time ever, past pupils from Belvedere organised a Jesuit Alumni Sleep Out in Covent Garden in London on 22 and 23 December 2024. They appealed to former students of all the Jesuit schools in Ireland who were living in or around London to join them for the SleepOut to raise money for Centrepoint, a well known charity working with homeless young people in London. The two SleepOut teams linked up via video link during the event and all went well also on the London side. Plans are already afoot to conduct another London SleepOut in 2025, possibly in Trafalgar Square, with lots of pre-publicity before Christmas.

This year’s SleepOut team were all too aware that homelessness levels have reached 14,960, the highest ever recorded in the state’s history. “Unfortunately the SleepOut was needed more than ever before. So we mobilised like never before, and it has paid off thankfully, and thanks to the generosity of all those who supported us,” the students said.