Belvedere Students Criticised for Sleepout

MadsL

Apparantly Irish Times poet and posh girl Rosita Boland believes Belvo students are not suffering enough.

http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/is-a-school-sleepout-best-way-to-raise-awareness-of-homelessness-1.2047725

Clearly the level of schoolchildren's comfort, texting and chocolate are the key issues in the issue of homelessness.

Obnoxious article...(The opinion piece isn't great either)


Oh and...

https://twitter.com/RositaBoland/status/547343118014898176

"And the irony is, they're actually taking up space where real homeless people sleep."

Oh Jesus....facepalm.

tritium

MadsL wrote: »

Apparantly Irish Times poet and posh girl Rosita Boland believes Belvo students are not suffering enough.

http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/is-a-school-sleepout-best-way-to-raise-awareness-of-homelessness-1.2047725

Clearly the level of schoolchildren's level comfort, texting and chocolate are the key issues in the issue of homelessness.

Obnoxious article...(The opinion piece isn't great either)

Looks to me at least like the Irish times displaying its *ahem* quality again. Funny how for Rosita homelessness is now a crisis-when did that happen,did the numbers suddenly rise or has this been at crisis levels for a number of years? Tbh I'd be more concerned that there's so little resources to address many of the underlying issues that led to homelessness- domestic violence, addiction, mental illness and the rest, than that a group of kids are trying to help out. I can't help but wonder if the perceived social demographic of the students hasn't influenced her to write this piece...

Dravokivich

MadsL wrote: »

Oh and...

https://twitter.com/RositaBoland/status/547343118014898176

"And the irony is, they're actually taking up space where real homeless people sleep."

Oh Jesus....facepalm.

Too right, because there's not enough doorways on the streets... :rolleyes:

conorh91

It's a bit tokenist alright, but no harm done.

She's scraping the bottom of the barrel with that "deyr takin r space" argument though. Dublin isn't exactly experiencing a portico-famine, although I'm sure that other sh1tehawk Una Mullaly will be writing about that when it happens...

LeinsterDub

In fairness to the belvo lads they've been doing this long before homelessness was the hot button topic and will be doing it for long after it's no longer a hot button topic

ProfessorPlum

MadsL wrote: »

"And the irony is, they're actually taking up space where real homeless people sleep."

Oh Jesus....facepalm.

Have the Belvedere lads turned away the real homeless people who wanted to sleep there? No? Didn't think so.

The Belvo sleepover has been highlighting and raising money for homelessness in Dublin for as long as I can remember. The lads do a great job. The fact that they have chocolate and iPhones shouldn't take away from that.

I wonder if her indignation would be so intense had the lads been from a school in a deprived area.

MadsL

LeinsterDub wrote: »

In fairness to the belvo lads they've been doing this long before homelessness was the hot button topic and will be doing it for long after it's no longer a hot button topic

Yeah, jumping on the bandwagon 31 years ago. Fuxing Hipsters.

W.B. Yeats

The sleepout has been ongoing since the late 80's- the boys have collected for Peter McVerry and St Stan for a long time and have slept outside the Dail, the GPO, the BoI and others in that time
Her question seems to be is there a better way of raising awareness of homelessness? (while also giving a jab at the conditions they are sleeping out in- not authentic enough for her liking)- that's not a bad question to raise but it's a pity that it gets lost.
She largely glosses over the significant funds raised and the fact that this is an issue that the school has supported for many years.
She's entitled to her opinion but it strikes me as being nit picky and mean spirited with a good dose of chip on her shoulder thrown in.

Magico Gonzalez

I get it, she doesn't think they're suffering enough so she wrote this dribble so that we could all understand what suffering is after reading it.

Hande hoche!

But what does Una Mulally think?

tricky D

ProfessorPlum wrote: »

Have the Belvedere lads turned away the real homeless people who wanted to sleep there? No? Didn't think so.

Correct. I remember befriending Christy at the sleepout back in the mid 80's and often bumped into him for a few years afterwards on the street.

That Boland one should educate herself on the other acts Belvederians partake in like the excellent V de P work done during and out of term by providing companionship to the lonely and elderly in particular and others in hardship (some heart-breaking stuff you wouldn't believe), and also the Christmas dinner they hold in the school. I might have lost touch with my alma mater but would assume these are still done.

Late in the 80's iirc/after my time, the school also was one the early ones to take in less well off kids from the locality and provide them with scholarships of a sort.

So Boland should stick that in her pipe and smoke it or better, put the keyboard away and do something positive.

Edit: also, fwiw, one of the main drivers behind the boards Santa Strike Force was also educated there which might explain a bit.

LawlessBoy

Putting homeless people out? walked past them earlier on college green and they had homeless sleeping beside them! hardly putting them out

Greenmachine

Leave them to it. While I wouldn't be particularly fond of any self-promotion that some people do on facebook, their hearts are in the right place.

DuchessduJour

Absolutely ridiculous article without even the most basic measure of cop on. The Belvedere lads have been doing this sleepout every year for decades, even when homelessness wasn't on the minds of people as much as it might be recently. What exactly does she want, for them to actually become homeless and experience the level of hardship endured by homeless people? Would that validate it?

Fair play to them, they raise a lot of money and awareness and it's not something that everyone's doing. They're just kids too and I think it's lovely to see that their school encourages them to be socially conscious and charitable.

Kermit.de.frog

TBF it can only be good for them to experience themselves the lives of some of the peasantry once a year. I think it's a jolly good thing to do.

suicide_circus

Hande hoche! wrote: »

But what does Una Mulally think?

No one gives two shiits

tricky D

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

TBF it can only be good for them to experience themselves the lives of some of the less fortunate thoughout the whole year. I think it's a jolly good thing to do.

FYP

Cathy.C

I gave them a few quid last night and as I was doing so, was also keeping my eye out to see if I could spot Keith Duffy's son, as Keith had said on TLLS that he was one of the students that sleeping out. Didn't manage to but I see from the following article today that he doesn't really look too like him.

goss.ie/2014/12/keith-duffys-son-jay-is-sleeping-on-the-streets-this-christmas-its-tough/

tikkahunter

She is a stuck up geebag who is out of touch , ****ing hell criticizing people who are trying to help less fortunate.

For Forks Sake

Hande hoche! wrote: »

But what does Una Mulally think?

No-one, and I mean no-one, gives a flying f*ck.

She'll probably try to shoehorn some convoluted subjugation of wimmins spin into the fact it was an all-lads school.

anncoates

When middle class liberals start fighting over who most Keeps It Real it can get nasty.

To be fair, I suppose a load of Jesuit educated kids doing that is almost a comic liberal cliche, or maybe for some even a future CV padding exercise but I think it's still good to see kids with a social conscience. God knows there's worse little fcukers out there.

Kermit.de.frog

Hande hoche! wrote: »

But what does Una Mulally think?

Who's Una Mulally?

NoMore MrNiceGuy

Hande hoche! wrote: »

But what does Una Mulally think?

Surely Una would argue that we should move on from fetishing the privileged White male homeless , who are still beneficiaries of patriarchy, and worry about her and her oppression.

anncoates

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

Who's Una Mulally?

Rhymes with doolally.

hotmail.com

I wonder how many Belvadere graduates later try to avoid paying tax.

h2005

hotmail.com wrote: »

I wonder how many Belvadere graduates later try to avoid paying tax.

humberklog

I work in the city and late last night I was in a spar where there was a large gang of the guys buying stuff. Big guys too. They were chatting about the night ahead and how best to get money from people (approach, speel etc.).

They came across as thoroughly sound, decent and right minded young lads.

What a nasty, meely mouthed article in The Irish Times.

Venus In Furs

Ew, really can't abide preachy tripe from people (usually from comfortable middle-class backgrounds - like myself btw) who aren't doing anything about the issue in question either.
Those lads are doing a lot more than she and similar columnists, writers on Rabble etc are doing, the most of which is blaming "society" (but not themselves) and bitching about middle-class people (apart from themselves).

hfallada

hotmail.com wrote: »

I wonder how many Belvadere graduates later try to avoid paying tax.

As much as any other person in Ireland. How is this relevant? The rich often prefer giving minimal taxes to the government and prefer spending the money they would spend on taxes, more efficiently than the government. Eg warren buffet pays less tax than his secretary but is giving all his wealth to charity.

Even in the boom we still had a massive homeless problem. So your point is kinda irrelevant

Robsweezie

let no good deed go unpunished.....

Sala

It's a great way to raise money and a great way to get young people involved and to engage with social problems. I'd say lots of those kids feel they are involved in something very important and will carry that with them in the future - much more successful than just asking them to bring in a few quid and them forgetting about it later, this is making them think, to associate with and understand homelessness, to really engage with the problem, and try to raise money as well. Fair play to them all