Rosie Goulding and Nicole O’Sullivan pose with a pilot on route to Bucharest.
Jack Leahy
News Editor
A ‘jailbreak’ competition organised by DU Amnesty International, DU Law Society and Trinity VDP has seen competitors board flights to Buenos Aires, Argentina and Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The competition, the object of which is to travel as far away from Trinity as is possible within 36 hours with no money, began at 9:30am in Front Square.
Claire Cullen and Matthew Hainbach (Team 6) are now many people’s favourites to win the competition having boarded a flight to Buenos Aires in Madrid at 17:30pm. However, Rosie Goulding and Nicole O’Sullivan (Team 24) are currently the official leaders in terms of confirmed location (Bucharest, Romania).
The organisers confirmed just after 21:20pm that Team 32 (Brian Cusack and Siona Wu Murphy) had arrived in Dubai, the first confirmed arrival outside of Europe.
Finn Murphy and Lulu Courtney posted photos to their personal Facebook pages depicting an attempt to hitch-hike in Salzburg, Austria, while other teams have posted evidence of their arrival in Frankfurt, Geneva, and Ayr.
The 40 teams of two are forbidden from spending money on transport and have found success in convincing travel companies to offer a free journey by way of sponsorship. The competition was famously popularised by Cambridge University students in January, with the winners making it as far as Australia.
Over €6,700 of sponsorship has been raised so far by the competition, which will go towards St. Vincent de Paul, Amnesty International, and a number of other charitable organisations.
Colm O’Gorman, Director of Amnesty International Ireland, is among thousands to have endorsed the event on Twitter. ‘TCDJailBreak2013’ was ‘trending’ first in both Dublin and Ireland this afternoon. ‘Trending’ is a measurement of the proportion of users in a given city or country discussing a particular topic.
Really? Someone got to Buenos Aires? Amazing! Such a cool fundraiser. Just how far will they get? #TCDJAILBREAK13
— Colm O’Gorman (@Colmogorman) March 9, 2013
