Meet Ruairí McKiernan. He's hitching for hope around Ireland

Ruairí McKiernan is a man who makes things happen.

Ruairí has packed his tent and has hit the road for the month of July on a 'Hitching For Hope' listening tour of Ireland. 

He'll be hitchhiking, recording, blogging, tweeting, facebooking, YouYubing, and doing radio reports of people's visions for the country as he goes, before ending on July 30th at the MacGill Summer School where some of the voices, visions and videos from from the tour will be shared.

Ruairi will travel the length and breadth of the island, being guided by the people he meets en route and the stories he hears. This is, he says, "a quest for hope at this important time in our world and an attempt to find, listen, learn from, and share the wisdom, solutions and ideas that are out there and need to be heard."

Ruairi was asked to speak at MacGill Summer School on the theme of citizens’ views of the republic. While he felt it was a great honour to be asked to speak at the event, his initial inclination was to decline as he didn’t feel qualified to talk without first connecting deeper into people's dreams for Ireland.

This gave rise to the idea of a listening tour born out of a heartfelt sense that there are great people, organisations and communities out there that aren’t being heard in the media or in politics.

Ruairí doesn't have a paid job at the moment so fortunately he does have the time to do this. However, it does come with financial challenges and as yet he has no sponsors or donors.

Costs will be kept transparent and to a minimum and he will be mostly relying on free lifts, offers of bed and breakfast, camping when necessary. 

There are many ways that you can help Ruairí and his worthy cause: 

- Follow his daily updates on his Facebook page 'Hitching For Hope', on Twitter @ruairimckiernan and www.community.ie

- Notify friends and family and get them to connect via email, facebook or twitter updates.

- Sponsor the tour or buy him a dinner and get credited in his 'hope helpers' list.

"I need to cover my rent and bills while away, cover some equipment costs (camping, technology, web etc.) and pay for on the road food and board here and there. I'll list any sponsors or donors online if appropriate. You can lodge to bank account or securely online via iDonate (or Paypal)."

To contact Ruairí you can email him on [email protected]

As the saying goes, 'the journey is the destination'. 

We at WorldIrish.com are wishing Ruairi the very best of luck!