Rock Against Homelessness Tickets at 3Olympia Theatre

The Sunday Independent’s Rock Against Homelessness in aid of Focus Ireland celebrates ten years of amazing gigs and over €450,000 raised. One of the Irish artists of the year Damien Dempsey will headline the 10th anniversary of Rock Against Homelessness in aid of Focus Ireland. Focus Ireland reports that sadly the homelessness crisis has deepened again in the last year: a record total of just under 15,000 people are now homeless and shockingly this includes over 4,645 children. These figures demonstrate that we need events like Rock Against Homelessness now more than ever.

Hot on the release of his brilliant new album Hold The Joy, and subsequent sold out shows all over Ireland, Dempsey will put on a show that the nation needs right now: a powerful call to compassion, empathy and speaking up about something successive governments have done very little about.

Damien Dempsey said: ‘It makes me angry to my bones that in 2024 there are almost 5000 children without a home in Ireland and 15,000 people homeless. It is beyond words of anger or sadness that this issue has not been fixed. What are the so-called people in power doing about it ? Not a lot, as far as I can see. I often wonder about the fact that they can do nothing about homeless now but in the 1930s and 1940s - when Ireland was on its knees as a nation financially - they could still manage to build massive housing estates around Ireland for people to live in. Why can't they do that now? They are too busy selling out the people by selling the soul of Ireland to international vulture funds who couldn’t care less about anything or anyone other than money. Something needs to be done urgently about helping the homeless in Ireland.’

CEO of Focus Ireland Pat Dennigan said: ‘The support and awareness we get from an event like this is amazing. Focus Ireland needs to raise over 40% of our annual budget through donations and events like Rock Against Homelessness so we really need people to support this magnificent event again this year. Damien Dempsey is well known for his strong voice on social justice, and it is a great fit to have him as the headline act for the 10th Rock Against Homelessness. The crisis has got worse as the number of people homeless has shot up 14% in the last year. These are not just percentages and statistics, but everyone is a real person whose life has been in crisis because they have lost their home.