IRELAND: An unprecedented €3 million was contributed in Dublin's Catholic churches last weekend for the tsunami disaster appeal - or three euro for every Catholic man, woman, and child in the archdiocese.
This record response to an appeal by Dublin's Catholics does not include amounts from some parishes still outstanding, or donations from people continuing to come forward.
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said: "Never before have people contributed so generously to a collection, and I am sure many of you had already contributed in other ways."
Contributions to Trócaire for tsunami relief currently stand at €4.4 million. Final figures from last weekend's collections in Catholic churches all over Ireland will not be available until next week.
Estimated figures from the North's parishes suggest over €3 million may have been raised there, where €800,000 was donated in an appeal for the Darfur region of western Sudan last August.
In an extraordinary gesture, an international auction for nominations to stallions standing at Coolmore Stud's operations in the US, Ireland and Australia has raised over €2.8 million ($3.5 million) for the Red Cross appeal. People were invited to bid their stud fees at the outset, instead of paying the customary set fee upon delivery of a foal.
Over $2.2 million was raised by the bidding. A private donation from a friend of Coolmore brought the total amount up to $3.5 million.
Over €1.5 million of that will be given to the Irish Red Cross, with the balance going to the American and Australian Red Crosses for their Asia Appeals. It brings to €13.5 million the amount raised for the south-east Asia appeal by the Irish Red Cross to date.
Meanwhile, a bed-push organised by staff at 11 of Dublin's leading hotels yesterday was expected to raise €10,000 for the Irish Red Cross appeal.