'Black Santa' finishes sit-out

Dean Houston McKelvey will donate to charities for the homeless

Belfast's Black Santa has said his annual sit-out has raised in the region of £200,000 for charity so far this year.

Dean Houston McKelvey has been sitting outside St Anne's Cathedral for the past six days, continuing a tradition started by his predecessors.

He finished his charity appeal on Christmas Eve but said he had been overwhelmed by people's generosity.

"Yesterday was just unbelievable, people kept just coming and coming and coming," he said on Wednesday.

"There was everything from carrier bags full of pennies and two pennies right through to very generous cheques coming from schools as far away as Portadown and businesses all over the city and over the province.

"Individual people were coming along and family groups which is always nice to see."

Dean McKelvey has said most of the money will go to charities for the homeless, after he saw people sleeping rough outside the cathedral.

The charity vigil has raised more than £2m since Dean Sammy Crooks first began the collection in 1976.

He was initially dubbed Black Santa by the media because of his distinctive clothing, and the name caught on among the public.

Dean Houston first sat out for Christmas two years ago, following in the wake of his predecessor Dean Jack Shearer, who died in January 2001.