Women donate 'handbags of love'

A Borrisokane woman who issued an appeal to help brighten up Christmas for homeless women has been overwhelmed by the response she has received.
Deirdre Sage took to social media to ask women to root out their old and disused handbags and fill them with sanitary products for destitue women living on the streets of Limerick.
Deirdre initially set a target of getting a dozen  handbags to fill, but the reality is that the numbers of women from the Nenagh and Borrisokane areas who have rallied to her plea has absolutely astounded her. 
"I thought I might get about 12 handbags at most, but now I can't believe that I have received 70," a shocked, but delighted, Deirdre told The Guardian.
She added: "I was simply blown away by the generosity of people. My spare room  at home is like going into a shop with so many sanitary products donated. There's stuff all over the place."
Stuffed into Deirdre's room is a virtual mountained of not just sanitary products purchased be women to place in the handbags  they donated – there's hats, scarves, lipstick,  mouisturers and makeup of all sorts.
Over the last few days Deirdre and her friend, Mary Louise Slevin, have been sorting all the products received in to indivudal gift packages which they then placed in the old handbags.
Deirdre has adorned each gifts-laden handbag with a purple ribbon and will travel to Limerick this Wednesday to distribute them to homeless women she meets on the streets and to Adapt House, the charity providing a range of services for women and children subjected to domestic abuse, and Novas, the housing body which provide help for people experiencing social exclusion.  
"I really want to say a big 'thank you' to all the women who responded to this appeal," said Deirdre.
"They have bought soap products, sanitary towels and other essentials that are so vital to homeless women who cannot  afford them. It will be a Christmas gift for them."
She added: "Strangers just kept turning up at my door with their old handbags and sanitary products. One woman drove from Birr and gave me, not just one, but a number of her handbags and stuff to fill them with. Another woman arrived with hats and scarves that she had knitted herself; its so unbelievable."
For more on Deirdre's generous and  successful appeal see her Facebook page, 'handbagsoflove'.