by Bill O'Donnell--Updated Jan 29 to correct donated amount from Ireland and the EU. Ireland has once again answered the call for help, this time from a ravaged Haiti. Irish aid agencies like Goal and Concern have been shipping lifesaving supplies and personnel into that island of nine million. The Irish government has joined with other members of the European Union in donating some $350 million and quickly airlifted over 85 tons of food, medicine and other essential aid. Irish Doctors and nurses have been volunteering to aid the sick and wounded In Haiti, while others have been deployed in a recovery mission unearthing bodies in the rubble that was once Port-Au-Prince.
One Galway senior on his own collected donations of $8,500 for the stricken country. This has been repeated elsewhere in Ireland, North & south. Around the island of Ireland many individuals and NGOs have been working around the clock to help Haiti and additional flights have been leaving from Dublin for the Dominican Republic’s La Romana Airport to avoid aftershocks and congestion at the Haitian capital’s airport.
Aer Lingus has donated aircraft and paid flight crews to ferry tons of medical and food supplies to Haiti, while Dublin Airport fees have been waived to facilitate the mercy airlifts.