Over 40 coats for the homeless have been hung on the Ha'penny Bridge this evening after Dublin City Council removed jackets over the weekend citing health and safety concerns.
Monaghan man Paddy Fryers started the #warmforwinter campaign last week, encouraging Dubliners to hang jackets on the city centre bridge as gifts for homeless people.
But the coats were removed by council officials on Saturday. The council later cited health and safety concerns as the reason the jackets were removed and said they would be redistributed through homeless services.
A DCC spokeswoman told Dublin Live over the weekend: "It is the City Council’s duty to protect the public and prevent accidents from occurring on this footbridge, through any restrictions in pedestrian flow, particularly at this time of year when thousands of people use this bridge on a daily basis.
"Crowd surges are a particular concern and Dublin City Council must, at all times, put public safety first. This is a policy that we enforce, in relation to all objects left on the bridge railings or pathways."
Mr Fryers slammed the decision as "bizarre" and "against the spirit of Christmas" as he left a fresh batch of coats, mainly donated from people in his hometown of Clones, on the bridge this evening.
"I wanted to make it easy for people to get a warm coat without any stigma," he told RTE.
"They should just be able to pick one up and disappear into the darkness.
"And there had been no real issue or controversy with what I was doing.
"But the city council's decision to remove coats from the Ha'Penny Bridge at the weekend has made people very angry."
He added that since the weekend he has been contacted by people from across the globe hoping to start similar initiatives in cities such as Chicago, Toronto and Melbourne.
