Irish rock band the Cranberries are to donate the proceeds of their next single, Time is Ticking Out, to the Chernobyl Children's Project.
The band’s lead singer, Dolores O’Riordan, was joined by the project’s executive director and founder, Ms Adi Roche, and patron Ms Ali Hewson today at the Clarence Hotel, Dublin, to make the announcement.
O’Riordan explained how she wrote the song in Spring 2001 after she had seen the children of Chernobyl. Having just given birth to her second child, the pictures of children born with so many illnesses moved her to tears, she said.
It was her hope that as well as funds, the single would help raise awareness about the plight of the Chernobyl children, she said. The band's last offering, Analysissold over 175,000 copies worldwide.
Thanking the Cranberries, Ms Roche said the song’s title was appropriate as the health problems, caused by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of April 26th, 1986, were only beginning to emerge.
She said the effects were moving to the "next generation who are now witnessing soaring levels of infertility and genetic changes, especially among those who were less than six years of age when the accident happened".
Founded in 1991, the Chernobyl Children's Project is an Irish charity that works to help the children who are living victims of the nuclear disaster. So far, it has sent €24 million in aid to the region.