Big hearted bikers help the homeless
Motorcyclists from Offaly are travelling to Dublin on Christmas Eve to feed the homeless in front of the GPO.
The big hearted locals are part of a new national organisation, Bikers Against Homelessness, which was set up by Portarlington resident Tony Morrell.
One of the best known bikers in the country, Tony decided to set up the group last month after becoming disillusioned with the government's response to the worsening homelessness crisis.
In the past four weeks Tony and his fellow group members from Ireland's biker “family” have travelled to Dublin on numerous occasions to bring essentials such as sleeping bags, nappies, toiletries, clothes and food to the capital's homeless population and the hundreds of people living in emergency accommodation.
Speaking to the Offaly Independent, Tony, who describes his organisation as a “funnel” that brings donations to the groups helping the homeless, said that he has been overwhelmed by the generosity of the general public.
“Fastway Couriers are helping us, the butchers in the town [Portarlington] are giving me meat every week; an estate in Tullamore where my mate's sister lives is baking stuff for us. It's coming from all over Ireland, that's the simplest way of saying it.”
Tony says that when he started travelling up to Dublin and working with homelessness group and meeting the people living on the streets, he was shocked at the extent of the problem.
In the last two weeks alone, he'll have made seven trips to Dublin and he says that Biker Against Homelessness will continue their campaign in 2017.
“Until you go up there and witness it, you do not realise the scale of it. They are not all drug addicts or alcoholics, if fact we rarely see those people. They tend to stay in the back alleys and the rough sleeping patrols meet up with them.
“After you feed them and all the rest they are going back to their park or doorway and you are going home to bed. When you first get there and see it, you have a good cry and then start again.”
If anyone would like to help Bikers Against Homelessness, they can contact Tony on 0863439126.