Cork man Willy delivers petition to Palestinian embassy

CORK butcher Willy O’Sullivan, who has spent the last six months gathering 10,000 signatures from concerned Corkonians in honour of the people of Gaza, has said his visit to the Palestinian embassy was “a great day”.

Mr O’Sullivan, aged 67, was inspired by the weekly rallies in Cork city, hosted by the Cork Palestine Solidarity Campaign (CPSC), to create a petition of signatures from passersby to share their support for a ceasefire of the war in Gaza.

“The last six months have been the best I’ve spent in a long time; it wasn’t hard work,” he said. “I enjoyed it immensely.”

Originally setting out to gather 5,000 signatures, Mr O’Sullivan, who has campaigned at various spots around the city every week since November, said that without realising it, he had surpassed his goal.

“The people of Cork are fantastic, before I knew it I was at 6,000, so I said I’d bring that up to 10,000.”

Ambassador

On Wednesday, Mr O’Sullivan was joined by fellow campaigners on a journey from Kent Station to the Palestinian embassy in Dublin, where they met with Palestinian ambassador to Ireland, Dr Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid.

“It was a great day,” he said. “We went in at 2pm and met the ambassador, and she was such a lovely lady.

“We handed over the petition, spoke about it, and she thanked us, saying she’ll pass it on to others in the embassy. So it is now in the hands of the embassy and the ambassador, and we had a great chat with her. It was very educational and very enjoyable.”

Feedback

Of the feedback he received from the people of Cork, Mr O’Sullivan said: “I started this petition six months ago with two posters and the petition papers. I picked a few places around Cork to stand, because I wanted to speak to different people, and the response I got was phenomenal.

“The very first morning I started in Dawn Square, catching people on the way to school and work between 6.30 and 7am, and people just gathered around me.

“People were actually queuing to sign it,” he added. “They walked away from the table as happy as I was because they were a part of something.”

Mr O Sullivan told The Echo that he and his fellow campaigners are discussing another petition to raise funds.

“We want to assure the Palestinian people that there are 10,000 people in Cork who support them. They’re not on their own,” he said.