Helen Madigan -cooking Christmas dinner for 100 people on Monday
If you are stressed about your Christmas-dinner preparations, spare a thought for Helen Madigan, who will be cooking dinner for dozens of people on Monday at the Men's Hostel, in Waterford. The hostel, which is run by the Society of St Vincent de Paul, has 52 residents, but, says Madigan: "Christmas Day is an open day for us, so we usually get about 100 people. We get a lot of people coming in who are looking for some company, and we also have men who have moved on to independent living but come back to us for meals."
Cooking that much turkey and ham is like a military operation. "We do a lot of preparation in advance. There are three cooks here and four assistants, so on Christmas Eve we get everything ready. We will be cooking six turkeys - and they are big ones, about 25lb."
This is Madigan's first Christmas Day. "The three cooks take it in turn, so this is my first year. I will be in at about 8am, getting pots on, and will be there until mid-afternoon. Then I am going to my parents' house with my family for Christmas dinner." Do her children understand her absence? "Yeah, they are very good. They understand my commitments to the hostel and that it is something I need to do."
Dinner is served at 1pm; then Madigan will stay on to celebrate Christmas with the men. "You don't drop your hat and run. There are party games being played and carols being sung. We try and make it a special day for the lads, because for some of them Christmas is a sad occasion.
"If you met these men your heart would go out to them. Some people would look down on them, but they have hearts of gold, so of course you do anything you can to help them. You don't look on them as charity cases. It's more like looking at your father or grandfather sitting there." Michael Kelly
The Men's Hostel is selling a calendar to raise funds: call 051-879930; www.svp.ie.