Irish Red Cross
The Irish Red Cross Society was formally established on 1 July 1939 under the terms of the Red Cross Act 1938. Its constitution is based on the Geneva Conventions of 1949, their additional Protocols of 1977 and 2005 (the Geneva Conventions), to which Ireland is a party, Acts of the Oireachtas and relevant provisions of the international Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
The organisation has been supervised by the Irish Department of Defence and it receives €1 million p.a. from the State; its management is currently being reformed.
Formerly the Irish White Cross had worked in the Irish Free State in 1921-28.
The society is organised on a voluntary basis. In Ireland, its activities include mountain rescue, first aid education of the public, the provision of first aid and ambulance services at public events, as well as other community services including therapeutic hand care for the elderly and training of carers. Outside of Ireland, the society provides relief and humanitarian services in response to natural disasters and in regions of conflict.
The headquarters of the Irish Red Cross is located at 16 Merrion Square North, Dublin 2. The society is a member of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Read more about Irish Red Cross: Organisation, Use of Red Cross Insignia, Controversies
Famous quotes containing the words irish, red and/or cross:
“I hope you will not be washed away by the Irish sea.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“‘But where can we draw water,’
Said Pearse to Connolly,
‘When all the wells are parched away?
O plain as plain can be
There’s nothing but our own red blood
Can make a right Rose Tree.’”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“Flood-tide below me! I see you face to face!
Clouds of the west—sun there half an hour
high—I see you also face to face.
Crowds of men and women attired in the usual costumes, how curious you are to me!
On the ferry-boats the hundreds and hundreds that cross, returning
home, are more curious to me than you suppose,
And you that shall cross from shore to shore years hence are more to me, and more in my meditations, than you might suppose.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)