A Newry company has been hailed as an inspiration after donating an entire day's sales revenue, almost £180,000, to Oxfam Ireland's Gaza emergency appeal.
Rug retailer Kukoon launched a social media campaign to inform customers of the plan and set a target of £40,000, but that figure had been exceeded by 9am on the day designated to raise funds for the charity.
By the end of the day, sales totalled almost £178,000.
Oxfam Ireland CEO Jim Clarken travelled to the company's headquarters to be presented with a cheque for the sterling equivalent of €206,701.
He described it as a unique initiative.
"This sends a message of hope that despite all the darkness we see, the hope that can be transferred through people being active in this part of the world, doing something that's practical, that's useful, and that can have that kind of impact is such a positive thing to take from this extraordinary event," he said.
"We've never had a corporate engagement with a company like this before. We've had businesses donate a day's profit, which was excellent, but this was the first time we had a company offer to donate an entire day's revenue. The scale of it was absolutely amazing.
"It was a unique day for us. It would certainly inspire us and hopefully other companies to engage in this kind of way where, you know, so many people out there are looking for ways to support, looking for ways to get involved, looking for ways to see how can we do something about this catastrophe that's happening to other people across the world," Mr Clarken said.
The idea was the brainchild of founders Paul Vallely and his sister Clare Walsh, whose father used to sell rugs and other items from the back of a van in markets throughout Ireland. Their online business sells around 10,000 rugs a week.
"Like most people, we have been watching the situation unfold in Gaza over the past 18 months and we wanted to do something," said Ms Walsh.
They were concerned about a potential backlash, but decided it was a risk worth taking.
"We were concerned about using Kukoon, the business, and speaking up publicly around it, there were concerns about the public reaction and our retail partnerships, but we decided it was the right thing to do and we pushed those concerns to the side.
"It just got to the point that it was so harrowing, particularly children seeing children caught up in this conflict and going hungry and no medical aid that we decided we had to do something," she added.
The scale of sales on the designated day surprised everyone at the company.
"When we announced what we were going to do a number of customers said they would make a purchase that day, but you never know if that's going to follow up or not," said Mr Vallely.
"But as we got closer to the Friday morning, the social media following, the engagement we got was huge and by 9am it was clear that it was going to be a huge day and we were going to raise a lot more than the target.
"There's been one or two negative responses and that's probably par for the course when you deal with something political like this, but overwhelmingly it's been positive and engaging and other businesses have said they want to get involved.
"It's something we're all very proud of and glad to have been a part of," he said.
Oxfam said it hopes to be able to use the money to provide aid on the ground in Gaza as soon as practically possible.
"Over the past year and a half Oxfam has been able to reach 1.4 million people through the provision of water, sanitation, food and support for families despite what has been going on so we're continuing to work, but it has become more and more difficult because of the blockade," Mr Clarken said.
"The aid is ready and with the kind of funding that we're getting here and elsewhere, the plan is to scale this up to a massive level as soon as we can get access, the kind of access that's required and that is really the most important thing now."
"We need to see a ceasefire, we need to see humanitarian access so that the work can be scaled up to a level that really gives the people of Gaza what they need," added Mr Clarken.
