A number of students from NUI Galway have travelled all around the world without any money as part of the largest national student charity event, Jailbreak 2014, to raise money for Amnesty International and St Vincent de Paul.
The event, which was started exclusively by TCD last year, has already blossomed into a national event, with more than 200 students taking part, representing NUI Galway, Trinity College Dublin, UCD, and UCC, creating a healthy, charitable, rivalry between the competing institutions.
The students disembarked from their starting points from Kilmainham Gaol, Cork Gaol, or Eyre Square last Saturday February 22 at 9am. The overall winners had to reach the furthest destination possible by 9pm on Sunday, 36 hours in total, without using a single penny of their own money while also trying to raise money for the chosen charities.
This year the overall winners of the event were Kyryll Chulak and Salim Sebaoui of Trinity College Dublin, travelling more than 17,000km to reach Sydney, Australia, and raising nearly €400.
In an event which was dominated by the Dublin universities, the runners-up were NUI Galway’s own students’ union president Sean Kearns and its Oifigeach na Gaeilge Aoife Ní Shúilleabháin, who managed to reach Denpasar in Bali, travelling a distance of 12,839km, and raising in excess of €700 thus far. The pair also completed the journey wearing wedding dresses in a bid to promote marriage equality.
Sean and Aoife’s journey to Bali was not the only impressive effort made by a team from NUI Galway, with four others teams making it into the top 20. NUI Galway’s other teams reached far away destinations such as New York City, Sivas and Istanbul in Turkey, and Tenerife in the Canaries. Other places reached by Jailbreakers this year were Honolulu in Hawaii, Singapore, Seattle, Dadna and Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, Dubai, and Jamaica. For more information on Jailbreak 2014 or to make a donation visit www.jailbreak14.com
