Despite Ireland's mixed performances on the field during the Six Nations, one of the highlights of the tournament has been the IRFU's partnership with Focus Ireland, to try and publicise the homelessness problems in Ireland.
Head coach Joe Schmidt, fly-half Johnny Sexton and former bagman Rala O'Reilly spoke with Focus Ireland's Roisin McDonnell about how the campaign has helped change the conversation about homelessness around the country.
Sexton speaks in the video by saying that he always thought homelessness was the people on the streets. He added that he wasn’t aware that there are families in one room in a hotel.
Irish head coach Joe Schmidt added “one of the things that has been good for the players in this campaign is that they’ve got a greater awareness and life’s not that easy sometimes for them either, particularly not at the moment – it’s been a tough few weeks for them but it puts things into context when you’re representing your country."
He added “I think it is an incredibly good group who work very hard but are also very grounded and aware that they need to be helping people if they have that opportunity”.
McDonnell continued and thanked the Irish team and the players for getting on board with the campaign and because of their support, Focus Ireland were able to shed a different light on homelessness that they have never been able to do before. Seeing the logo on the Irish jackets she claims is bringing a whole new level to Focus Ireland and getting that message out there.
Irish sponsor's Three are helping with the campaign. Fan can help by texting HOME to 50300 to donate €2. Focus Ireland will receive a minimum of €1.63.
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