Ainle Ó Cairealláin

but at the same time doing it collectively that's the way we do it so there's sessions on every hour and the people are booked in for that session so you know who's coming the training program ready for them and we run it up until midnight and I suppose the whole concept of what we were trying to do here it kind of comes back to

looking at the nature of solidarity and what that means and especially in particular if we're talking about the gym looking at the nature of international solidarity and there's a whole field there and a whole area that can be discussed for days about like

What should international solidarity look like?

How effective is a lot of the international solidarity that we're exposed to?

And what we wanted to do with the gym was build a bridge between Ireland and Palestine.

So in a way, it's a two way street.

It's that we can go over there and make a sort of positive contribution to the work that's already ongoing in the centre with whatever skills and abilities that we have.

and also that people who were coming to palestine invite more people to come to palestine and have it as a hub for coaches and yoga teachers and trainers boxing and trainers and so on to be able to come and spend a bit of time and not get caught up in a kind of like the superficial level but get onto the ground do something with the skill set that you have get to know people um on a real personal level and also many respects what we're trying to do is

do something that kind of goes against the isolation of Palestine.

Like we mentioned earlier, talking about places like Cuba, Venezuela, like Palestine in particular, the thing that a lot of the time manufacturers consent for bad things to happen there is when they're isolated from the rest of the world.

So this was just a small way to try and kind of do our part and sort of define that isolation.

And a lot of people have visited us over the years and been involved in it.

It's also given people here in Ireland the opportunity to kind of be a part of something in Palestine where they can see the benefit of if somebody has a fundraiser in Ireland and see directly where their efforts in Ireland have contributed to in Palestine.

Which I think that transparency has...

made it easy for people to get behind the project and like the whole project wouldn't exist without the people who have supported it in Ireland through running their own wee fundraisers from bake sales to concerts and just chipping into the online fundraisers that really is what has made this thing possible and it has also

The bridge has gone, it's a two-way street, you know what I mean?

The connection is not just from Ireland to Palestine, but now it's from Palestine to Ireland.

Yeah.

And it's really strengthened, created a really strong bond over the years, which for me, like that's one of the biggest victories of the whole project.

Aside from the fact that it's now like providing a really valuable service for the community, that that's the primary purpose of it really.