Irish GAA players serve their post-match meals to the homeless on the streets of Dublin

A GROUP of GAA hurlers keen to do their bit help Ireland's homeless have taken to the streets of Dublin to serve up a special festive treat.

With over 4,000 people homeless this Christmas in Dublin, members of both the Westmeath seniors and U21 teams dished up more than 70 hot dinners when they served their post-match meals on Grafton Street.

The squads first handed out dishes in Mullingar before linking up with Cairdeas Homeless Action Group to serve dinners on the streets of the Irish capital.

The idea behind the gesture came to U21 manager Adrian Moran after he saw a man lying in a doorway in Dublin.

“The hope would be that our example will encourage the other counties to do the same,” Moran told GAA.ie. “That every county would give up one post-match meal that would be served to the homeless.

“There's no real cost, because it's just a dinner that you're giving up. The only cost is someone bringing the dinner to the venue," he added. "We're just going to go without a dinner some night in January on a collective training night and lads will bring their own sandwiches or whatever.”

Moran also spoke of the inspiration behind the move – the man he saw lying on a doorstep on a recent shopping trip to Dublin.

“I was standing around outside Jervis Street shopping centre and I noticed a guy lying in a door-way,” he said. “I thought he was asleep initially, but I then realised he was just staring into oblivion, basically.

“On the way home we talked about it, my wife and two kids, and then a couple of days later I was in Mullingar and saw a guy in the same situation, sitting in a door-way. So I went home to my wife and said, 'we'll have to try to do something'.

“She suggested that whatever I did wouldn't have a huge impact unless I could think of something a bit different.

"So I spoke to the lads involved in the Westmeath U-21 management and and a few of the players and then spoke to Darren McCormack who would be a link between the U-21 and senior Westmeath teams and their manager Michael Ryan.

“Everyone was agreeing they'd give up a post-match meal. That's roughly 70 meals, and then I spoke to the Annebrooke Hotel who said they'd bump it up to 100 or whatever it takes. That's where it started.”