Pro-Cathedral opens its doors to unwanted gifts

As thousands of people poured into Dublin to buy still more stuff on the second day of the post-Christmas sales, a small but steady trickle of people flowed into St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral on Marlborough St to leave gifts for those left with nothing this festive season.

At first glance pickings looked to be slim. Sitting close to the church’s crib were a small pile of presents made up of a CD loaded with old-school desktop publishing software promising a would-be recipient “everything you need to publish your own ideas in print and online”.

There were a couple of scented candles, a Frozen jigsaw book, a board game based around Row Your Boat, a box of Cadbury's Roses, a mug, two scarves, a pair of jeans, two pairs of children's pyjamas, a Christmas tree candle holder, some "opulent bathing" products and a small basket of paper and plastic shopping from Lidl.

But the present pile was telling only a very small part of the story. “We have to keep taking the stuff into a back room otherwise it would vanish,” said Canon Damian O’Reilly who is the administrator of the Pro-Cathedral.

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He described the first day of the 12th year of the church’s charitable initiative aimed at collecting Christmas presents for homeless or otherwise seriously disadvantaged people as “phenomenal”.

‘More aware than ever’

He said in his experience the first day “is kind of slow but we’ve got a huge amount of stuff in the last 24 hours. I think people are more aware than ever that there are more people in very difficult situations”.

Canon O’Reilly suggested a heightened awareness of the homelessness crisis had perhaps focused more minds this year. “People’s generosity is absolutely unbelievable ,” he said. “We are getting all kinds of everything.”

Crosscare, the archdiocese’s social care agency, will distribute the gifts over the coming weeks, holding some until next Christmas.

Brendan Doorey from Drumcondra was one of those dropping presents off. "I have some biscuits and some sweets and two scarves," he said. "I would like to see it going to someone who could use it more than I could."

Ann from Dublin wasn’t fair behind him. “If I get something I don’t want I always like to drop it in. I think it’s a really good thing to pass on the stuff rather than just let it sit there in my house. I’m dropping off some clothes and toiletries that I was given over Christmas. Maybe someone will get some real use out of this I hope so. At least it’ll be a present for them this year.”

Gifts can be placed at the cathedral crib from until January 6th.