Irish Examiner View: True Irish spirit found in little boxes

Lía López Blanco (7) from Guatemala and Nelson Ogunsanya (10) from Dublin at the launch of this year's Trócaire Lenten appeal. Trócaire is a classic example of how that generosity and hard work have gone together over the generations. That is the true history of Ireland, not the garbled nonsense peddled by manipulative racists. Picture: Mark Stedman

A great Irish success story celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, a milestone which should see the organisation concerned showered with plaudits. That organisation is focused on neither quick profits nor technological oneupmanship, but is devoted instead to helping the poorest people on earth.

For many readers, Trócaire is synonymous with the little cardboard boxes which have been brought from primary schools to homes all over Ireland at Lent, before being returned with donations at Easter time. 

The money collected is put to work in places of crushing poverty, to give those living in such places hope for the future.

In the list of Irish achievements, this surely deserves to be ranked alongside the companies and sportspeople habitually described as our outstanding exports and representatives.

It is not a matter of denigrating achievement in those other fields to point out that those working for Trócaire have made a material difference in the lives of thousands of people who would have suffered hugely otherwise.

This is particularly true at this point in Irish history, when agents and agitators of every stripe seem hellbent on creating an atmosphere of fear and distrust about those less fortunate than ourselves — and on doing so within Ireland itself at that. 

That behaviour is in stark contrast to the generosity of Irish people for many years in aiding the work of such charitable organisations, and completely contrary to the ethos of such organisations.

Trócaire is a classic example of how that generosity and hard work have gone together over the generations. That is the true history of Ireland, not the garbled nonsense peddled by manipulative racists.

Trócaire’s little cardboard boxes have been filled even when economic conditions in Ireland have been at their most challenging — that is a true reflection of the national character, not the fear-mongering orchestrated on our streets in recent weeks.