Ireland's Call Initiative Concludes Final PPE Mission

The HSE have thanked the Initiative's volunteers, donors and partners.

The Ireland’s Call Initiative has concluded the final stage of its three-part mission to ‘Fly the Heroes, House the Heroes and Kit the Heroes’ as it has received and begun to distribute its last PPE donation to locations across the country. The donation will go to Crumlin and Temple Street Children’s Hospital and Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, while the remainder will be dispersed to nursing homes across the country as required.

Fly the Heroes - Ireland’s Call initially sourced and funded flights for Ireland’s healthcare workers to bolster Ireland’s front line in the fight against Covid-19. These flights were paid for through a combination of public and private donations. 67 medics were flown back from all four corners of the globe and all 67 are now back working in Ireland’s healthcare system. 

House the Heroes - Ireland’s Call also supported 43 medics with accommodation to self-isolate effectively for 14 days. The Initiative sourced housing near various hospitals across the country, which varied from hotel rooms, to commercial rental and privately-owned properties. We also received numerous generous offers from members of the public offering up their vacant properties to healthcare workers across the country. Maynooth University generously offered up 20 of its rooms for use.

 Kit the Heroes – The Initiative received a donation of 500L of hand sanitizer from Listoke Distillery in April, which was distributed to nursing homes and Garda checkpoints across Ireland. We have also received numerous donations of PPE, which have been delivered to hospitals and nursing homes throughout the country. A final plane load of certified PPE has been delivered, with hundreds of thousands of face masks donated to those most in need.

A spokesperson for the HSE said “The Ireland’s Call Initiative was set up as a philanthropic exercise to bring dozens of healthcare workers home from abroad, pay for their flights and organise their accommodation in self-isolation for a fortnight. We would like to thank those who returned home and those who assisted them.”

Everyone at Ireland’s Call is immensely proud and eternally grateful to all of our donors and partners for what their help has allowed us to achieve in the last 100 days. When Ireland called, you answered, and stood shoulder to shoulder with our front line.

For that, we thank you.