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Two Shankill football club managers have collected more than £3,000 for families left homeless by the Eleventh night bonfire incident.

Lower Shankill FC boss Stephen Paul and Jonathan McClelland, who runs the Berlin Swifts, walked the West Belfast road on Tuesday collecting as much cash as they could for people left devastated after their homes went up in flames in the early hours of Tuesday morning .

The pair were armed only with buckets, but by Tuesday night, just hours after the Fire Service had extinguished the fire, they had been given £2,850.

Stephen told Belfast Live: “We just wanted to do what ever we could to help the families affected. It’s just terrible what happened to them, but people were more than willing to help. We just started at the bottom of the road, at the Diamond Jubilee Bar, and worked our way up the road going into every pub and club we could think of.

“At the top end we ended up in the pigeon club in Ligoniel and they’d already done a collection and handed us £220. There’s bars like the Berlin have kept the buckets in overnight and this morning, there was £90 put in the Berlin bucket before it even opened by a fella who came in with a few quid.

“We’re never going to replace everything these people lost, and certainly not stuff with sentimental value, but we’re doing what we can to get them back on their feet.”

In total £3,210 has been collected by Stephan and Jonathan after £310 was left at Berlin Bar.

Between the bucket collection and a number of online collections , well over £3,000 has now been collected for the families affected. As well as the collections set up in the immediate aftermath of the fire, an event is being planned for the Jumna Street Linfield Supporters Club to help raise more money.

Gareth McKeown, a DJ and Carrick Rangers player, is one of those organising the event on July 31. He has already listed a raft of acts on his Facebook page who are taking part in the bash and hopes to raise at least £4,000.

His wife is related to four people affected by the fire including grandmother Lily Turtle.

He added: "Because I'm a DJ I know people in bands and tribute acts and that so I'm doing all I can to help.

"We've acts so far that would charge over £1,000 a night and they're doing this for free. There's just so many people pulling together to do what they can to help the people who've lost so much, it's been amazing."

Charlie Butler, who is also helping organise the event, said “all the stops are being pulled out to help the families”.

He added: “As soon as we started organise it we had 15 acts volunteering to take part. And they’re all doing it for free so we can raise as much money as possible. It’s been an amazing response.”

At least four houses were destroyed by the bonfire when embers were thrown up by its collapse and carried onto the roofs by the wind. Two were gutted with at least another two badly damaged by smoke and water.