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Journeys with TheJournal.ie: 'In the country, there are people who don't go beyond the local shop'
Would you like 50 free trips for your local organisation? Get your entries in before Friday.
OVER THE PAST month, TheJournal.ie has teamed up with Irish Rail to provide free trips to the most deserving individuals and groups across the country.
The partnership will see 5,000 people take return trains to the destination of their choice.
We have already introduced you to some of the winners but there is still time to nominate anyone who is doing fantastic work your community before the closing date on Friday, 28 October.
Journeys with TheJournal.ie is an initiative that seeks to support organisations in the voluntary, community, sporting and charity sector by bringing them where they need to go over the coming year.
This could bring your local club, group or organisation to that special event you would love to attend, on a well-deserved outing, or even be used as a specific support to members of the group who need help to travel to a destination.
Our latest winner will be using the prize to bring a gang from Tipperary on tour.
Duhill Community Council works tirelessly to bring people together in the small, rural area in the south of the county.
Its 10 volunteer members organise card drives, festivals, parties, breakfasts, fitness classes, dramatic productions, cycles and walks (including a successful ’12 days of Christmas Walking’ event) for local people across the entire year.
“We have recently lost the two pubs in the area,” secretary Maggie Moloney said in her application.
“[They] were hubs for people to get together and meet. It is hoped through all our different activities, we can help combat rural isolation, and provide a sense of togetherness.”
Moloney said the group would love to bring people on an away day – ‘Duhill on Tour’ – to Dublin, maybe for the Bloom festival in the summer or for the current exhibitions on at Kilmainham Gaol.
“We are in a very rural area and any small effort to bring people together whether it be a card drive or a walk means so much to some people,” she wrote in her application.
“These are the people who are living on their own or may be widowed – a lot of different circumstances – some people might just need a day off or away.
They say in Dublin people don’t go beyond the Pale, but in the countryside, there are people who don’t go further than the local shop. If we had an event available like this to us, it would definitely provide a talking point for years to come.
“It’s great to win, we’re delighted,” she told TheJournal.ie after they were chosen winners, explaining that Duhill is “a hall and a church” since the last pub shut its doors.
“But we had 70 people out walking last night. We all met at the hall with a torch and hi-vis jackets and went out for an hour – about 6k.
“The eldest was 82 and the youngest was 14. It’s about promoting health, as well as having the chat and talking so nobody feels on their lonesome.”
TheJournal.ie is announcing one winner a week, over four weeks, but there are 100 round trips to be won – for up to 50 people in a group at a time, so a whopping 5,000 tickets – and you can apply until 28 October 2016.
