Bushfires bring out unlikely heroes in Sydney’s selfless Irish tradies
Ravaged by weeks of flames, the small northern NSW town of Armidale has survived the worst bushfires in a generation thanks to a group of Irish construction workers tirelessly giving back.
NSW
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As he sat at home watching fires ravage rural NSW, Irish tradie Peter McMahon decided it was his duty to help those in need.
After recently purchasing a truck, he jumped up off the couch, loaded it up and rallied the his Irish brothers from across Sydney on a mission to help the people of Armidale.
Over the past two weeks, he and his mates have tirelessly clocked up tens of thousands of kilometres driving from the Harbour City to northern NSW.
On Saturday alone, he and a convoy of close to 100 trucks arrived to families in tears as they offloaded $100,000 worth of water to the town which has endured weeks of fierce flames.
“I was sitting in the house watching a farmer crying because he had to kill his livestock,” Mr McMahon told the Sunday Telegraph.
“I couldn’t watch, so I said to my wife ‘I am gonna put water on my truck and drive it up there’.
“I have a saying: if you can help, you should help … it seems like the government has forgotten about these people, we shouldn’t have to do this.”
Mr McMahon put the call out on the first weekend of the fires and instantly saw his four leafed clover convoy grow.
He estimates he has had two to three thousand calls this week alone from people wanting to help him on his mission.
On Saturday night he and about 160 Irishmen were enjoying some downtime in Armidale after a fortnight of being confronted with some of the worst scenes emerging from the bushfire crisis.
When asked, Mr McMahon was not surprised at how the Irish community rallied in the state’s time of need.
“The Irish community are really good when it comes to stuff like this,” he said.
“For us, we live and work here, so it was a chance to give back to Australia.
“There were people crying at the side of the road (on Saturday) and it gave me shivers … our whole crew was tearing up, this has been life-changing for a lot of people.”
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