JOE speaks to an innovative Leaving Cert student who’s on a mission to help Irish charities

Recently, JOE had a chat with James Keane, the 16-year-old Leaving Cert student behind the website IreachApparel.org, whose mission it is to change Irish lives “one t-shirt at a time”…

If you’re looking for an inspiring news story to give you the boost you need to get up off your arse and make a difference, then look no further… James Keane initially got the ball rolling back in May of this year when he set up the Facebook page ‘Things Only Irish People Will Get’. In case you haven’t been on the page yet, this is what the ‘About’ section reads: “Only our fine race of freckled faced, orange haired lads get this kinda craic!” Explains itself, really… Speaking to JOE, James said: “Well, basically, I set up the page during the summer and frankly, within 24 hours it went viral! I received around 30,000 likes in the first day. “It was crazy. I couldn't believe it. I really enjoy making people laugh and found this as a way to reach a bigger audience. All of my siblings have moved abroad so it made me think, maybe I could branch out to Irish people across the globe.” After James noticed that his posts about charitable causes got the most attention on ‘Things Only Irish People Will Get’, he decided to try and help some people in need by making money through his newly found success. “I was trying to think of ways to monetise the page. I enjoy things like designing clothes and putting my stamp on them, so I thought, how about I make a company that designs t-shirts and branch out to other clothing types after. My brother's friend, Douglas Ackerman, gave me some advice on what to do and I thought, what if I could sell my t-shirts and help out other people through charities? Douglas thought the idea was great so we went ahead and we have been working on it for the last few months.” IreachApparel.org is the name of the site that the lads have been working on and their mission is to work and support Irish charities by raising funds and awareness through their clothing. It sounds like a pretty big operation, or so we thought, but when asked James said, “It's just myself and my brother's friend, Douglas, who is a bit of a tech whiz. Being sixteen and doing my Leaving Cert, it's not all that easy to do all this myself.” Ireach Apparel asks people to choose a different charity to help each month with campaigns starting on the first of every month. This month, IreachApparel.org is helping Aoibheann's Pink Tie, which is a budding Irish charity that aims to help and support Children and their families during their child’s battle to beat cancer. “Since ‘Things Only Irish People Will Get’ has quite a big audience and massive reach with good content, I asked the community to send in their ideas and help us choose a charity. The response was amazing and there were so many worthy causes. But Aoibheann's Pink Tie caught my eye. “They’re not so well known by the general population and what they do for children with cancer is inspiring. We’re hoping to give them money and spread their name across Irish social media.” The Ireach Apparel campaign for Aoibheann's Pink Tie runs throughout the whole month of December and the lads are hoping to raise €5,000 for the worthy cause. It’s a fantastic idea from a young Irishman and it goes without saying that IreachApparel.com gets the JOE seal of approval. For more about Ireach Apparel check out http://ireachapparel.org/, the Ireach Apparel Facebook page and the Things Only Irish People Will Get Facebook page.