School gathers celebrity doodles for African school charity fund

DOODLING may be the work of idle hands but it is far from frowned upon in one school which has assembled a collection of very special scrawls, scribbles and sketches.

The minor works of art have been contributed by artists, politicians, sportsmen and other well known people for a celebrity doodle auction to raise funds for an African project close to the students’ hearts.

Close to 60 individual pieces have been collected, including a drawing from Bono, a thought for the day from Bertie Ahern, some lines of poetry from Seamus Heaney and a flower painting from Sophie Dahl.

The works give a fascinating insight into what preoccupies the minds of famous people, many of whom illustrated their blank page with images and thoughts associated with their jobs.

Mary Harney was clearly hoping for brighter days for the health service when she doodled a smiling nurse with a big bunch of flowers, while retired racing driver Eddie Irvine may have been signalling his enjoyment of life in the slower lane when he drew a stick man in a car that bore a much closer resemblance to an ageing Cortina than the Formula One speedmobiles he was used to.

Some celebrities didn’t have time to create their own individual piece of art but wanted to support the cause anyway. Champion golfer Tiger Woods sent two signed baseball caps and local legend Pádraig Harrington donated a signed shirt.

The auction is the brainchild of the transition year students at St Andrew’s College in Blackrock, Dublin who are holding the auction at the school on Thursday night, May 12, but are also making a countrywide event by accepting bids online and by phone.

They hope to raise a substantial sum to support a school and hospital in the Kabale district of south-western Uganda, which came to their attention through one of their teachers who used to live and work there.

“They have worked really hard on this. They have sat on the phone, they’ve looked up agents, they’ve written letters and they’ve gone around the school persuading anyone who had any connections at all with a celebrity to put the request out,” said year co-ordinator Monica Docherty.

15 of the students will travel to Kabale to see the results for themselves and it is intended the school and hospital will be adopted as fundraising projects by all future transition years.

The doodles can be viewed on the school website, www.st-andrews.ie, and advance bids can be made by contacting Sile Allen by phone on 01-2134023 or by email at [e-mail].