The Niall Mellon township trust is a charitable initiative in South Africa to build 500 permanent homes for over 5,000 inhabitants of Imizamo Yethu shanty town near Cape Town. Over Euro 2 million was initially donated to the fund and a volunteer workforce of 150 builders, carpenters, plumbers and simply non-skilled enthusiastic volunteers flew to South Africa in late November 2003 to commence construction of the new homes. Their efforts were closely followed by Des Cahill, who joined the team, with daily reports on RTE's "Morning Ireland".

Imelda Cormack, who heads up the Merry Ploughboy administration department joined the volunteer team and we understand from hardened and seasoned construction workers that Imelda was the toughest gaffer they ever had to deal with! The Merry Ploughboys themselves have participated in numerous fund raising events for this project.

The volunteers were recently honoured at a civic reception in the Mansion House by Dublin's colourful Lord Mayor, Roystan Brady. Indeed, Mayor Brady was among the first to acknowledge the efforts of the volunteers as soon as the project got underway.

This project is on-going. For donations and information, visit the Irish Township website