‘Give a shirt’

A campaign aiming to collect 50,000 items of clothing to prove that Waterford “gives a shirt” about its threatened city status is gaining pace.

Campaigners have organised the movement in a bid to ensure Waterford’s city status is not diluted by a merging of its city and county councils.

They hope the public will donate 50,000 shirts to their cause, representing every man, woman, and child in the city. They then plan to deliver the message to Leinster House.

All the shirts will eventually be recycled and any money earned donated to charity.

Organisers Liz Murphy and Cian Foley said the idea started off as a chat on Facebook at the start of the month but, already, over 2,300 shirts have been donated.

Ms Murphy said: “The Government has taken our jobs and given our money to the bankers. Now they want to rewrite 1,100 years of history and take Waterford’s city status.

“Seeing as there’s nothing left to give, they may as well strip the shirts off our backs too.”

They say the Government’s merger proposal is “not conducive to the proper development of Waterford” as a gateway city to the South East.

* www.waterfordgivesashirt.com