Belfast's so-called Black Santa has begun his annual sit-out for charity outside St Anne's Church of Ireland Cathedral.
The Dean of Belfast, the Very Rev Dr Houston McKelvey, hopes to assist several charities this year and substantially add to the £2 million raised over several years of such fund-raising.
Dean McKelvey, with volunteers, stages his sit-out each day, except Sundays, from 8.45 a.m. to 5.15 p.m. The fund-raising will run until the afternoon of Christmas Eve.
The dean, who is a keen sailor, wears layers of nautical clothing to try to prevent the bitter December cold penetrating through to his bones. Over these he wears a long, black cape, which is how the Black Santa term arose.
Although he insists he does not set targets, the overall figure he raises is likely to be on a par with the £230,000 he gathered last year. On the first day outside St Anne's he raised more than £15,000.
Before the sit-out started this week, the dean handed over cheques totalling more than £30,000 to Cancer Research, the Marie Curie Nursing Home, the Northern Ireland Hospice, the Children's Hospice and the Southern Hospice in Newry.
