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Cork woman brings Elsa Frozen dolls home from Oz for charity auction

Kind-hearted Aisling Walsh brought a special bit of Christmas spirit back in her suitcase.

Top Christmas Toys 2014 The Disney Snow Glow Elsa dolls are hard to come by. Matt Crossick / Matt Crossick/Empics Entertainment Matt Crossick / Matt Crossick/Empics Entertainment / Matt Crossick/Empics Entertainment

Updated 12.51, 23 December 2014

A GENEROUS GESTURE from Irish woman Aisling Walsh has seen a homeless charity rake in €4,000 in donations.

Aisling, from Carrigaline, Co Cork, decided to buy up half a dozen highly-coveted Snow Glow Elsa dolls from the movie Frozen merchandise and bring them home for Christmas from Australia. With the help of Cork’s 96FM’s Opinion Line, she ran an auction for five of them with all proceeds going to the Cork Simon community.

“Before I came home, I saw on Facebook that people were asking if anyone had them – I went to a shop in Australia and there they were – I rang another shop and managed to get another few,” Aisling told TheJournal.ie this lunchtime.

I saw an appeal on Facebook for a sick girl with leukaemia who really wanted one so I brought one back for her. I rang my mum from Australia and she suggested that 96FM might hop on board to help me auction the other ones for charity so I packed them up.

As well as buying the dolls out of her own pocket, she also paid excess luggage charges to get them from Australia to Cork. There was a slight hitch when Aisling arrived back in Ireland last Friday – her bags didn’t arrive back with her.

I wasn’t even worried about my clothes – sure, it was all shorts and t-shirts. It was the dolls I was panicking over!

Thankfully, she was reunited with her precious cargo on Saturday and the auction went live for Simon’s website here.

By close of bidding yesterday, the five dolls had raised a total of bids of €4,000 – one €1,000 bid by Geraldine O’Neill of Fitzpatrick’s Shop in Glounthane, one €1,000 bid by Pat Phelan of Trustev, and the other three next highest bids were €700, €650 and €650 from Dan Kiely of Voxpro.

Pat and Dan have had Santa’s help to identify four very deserving young girls in Cork’s homeless services who will receive their Elsa dolls on Christmas morning.

In a nice coincidence, Pat was actually sitting beside Aisling on the final leg of her trip home – the Manchester to Cork flight on Friday!

It’s not Aisling’s only kind Christmas gesture either. She’s one of the hardy souls who will be going for a chilly swim on Christmas Morning at Robert’s Cove, Co Cork, in aid of the Marymount Hospice.

Disney Disney

What a gal.

Caught cold: 20,000 fake Frozen dolls seized in Dublin>

Irish parents queued up in the wee hours for Frozen dolls… and they sold out almost immediately>

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    Mute Dr Winston O Boogie
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    Dec 22nd 2014, 4:08 PM

    Okay, I’m gonna go ahead and address the elephant in the room, and this in no way detracts from the good deed at play here, but…the dolls don’t look much like Elsa, there I said it.

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    Mute Shannon Cassidy
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    Dec 22nd 2014, 5:38 PM

    It’s meant to be like a toddler version of her, there is a series of dolls of all of the disney princesses like this. So yes it doesn’t look like the 20 year old character in the movie.

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    Mute Techguy.ie
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    Dec 23rd 2014, 9:01 AM
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    Mute Sinead Cosgrave
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    Dec 22nd 2014, 4:09 PM

    Well done Aisling and welcome home .

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    Mute Tony Skillington
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    Dec 23rd 2014, 1:35 PM

    That’s just how we roll here in Cork…

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    Mute Mike
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    Dec 22nd 2014, 3:48 PM

    I bought one of those dolls yesterday in Smyths in Swords.

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    Mute Liza Gannon-Blake
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    Dec 22nd 2014, 4:17 PM

    What a great thing to do, best of luck with your swim Aisling.

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    Mute Geraldine Lawlor
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    Dec 22nd 2014, 6:32 PM

    They had a mountain of them in Smyth’s Carrickmines at 9:30 am this morning

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    Mute Noel_Random
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    Dec 23rd 2014, 12:39 AM

    What a lovely film tho! 2 strong females full of strength and love and no prince charming. A lovely thing for our daughters and nieces this Christmas. And music!

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    Mute Techguy.ie
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    Dec 23rd 2014, 8:59 AM

    Yes you guys are right smyths had a world of these snow glow dolls in stock and i was listening to a radio station that had gotten its hands on 2 for a competition and im thinking its gotta be a different doll ! Hope nobody is too upset christmas morning

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    Mute Mike
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    Dec 23rd 2014, 2:13 PM

    Once the doll sings that song Let it go, thats the right doll. The one I got in Smyths a couple of days ago.

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    Mute Eamonn Sullivan
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    Dec 23rd 2014, 4:56 PM

    So the dolls in the auction aren’t actually the dolls that the kids were all going mad for? Oops.

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    Mute Joan Murphy
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    Dec 23rd 2014, 11:29 PM

    Eamonn , they are the correct Elsa dolls .

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    Mute Armonline
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    Dec 23rd 2014, 1:50 PM

    There is a mountain of generic dolls dressed like Elsa for sale at the street venders on Henry Street

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    Mute Paul Cherubini
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    Dec 23rd 2014, 1:54 PM

    Yeah they look absolutely nothing like the character though the skin is completely white!

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    Mute Maggie
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    Dec 23rd 2014, 1:49 PM

    Fair deuce

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    Mute Eamonn Sullivan
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    Dec 24th 2014, 3:01 AM

    They are else’s dolls, however they are not the dolls that were changing hands for ridiculous money on eBay. These particular dolls are on sale everywhere.

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