EIGHT IRISH charities have shared in a pot of €121,500 that was raised at the sell-out Notre Dame pep rally in Dublin last week.
The charities were each presented with cheques for €13,500 at an event in Dublin yesterday.
Among the recipients were the CSC Centre in Mayo, Friends of the Elderly in Dublin, the Separated Children education service on Dublin’s Parnell Square, the Aisling Project in Ballymun, the Life Centre on Pearse Street in Dublin, the Foundation Project on Seán McDermott Street, Youth Horizons, Tallaght and Forbairt Naoinrai Toranta.
A donation of €13,500 was also made to the Other Voice Project. Yesterday’s event in O’Connell House on Merrion Street, the home of Notre Dame in Dublin, was hosted by RTÉ’s Miriam O’Callaghan.
The total cost involved in the production of the Notre Dame Pep Rally at the O2 last Friday was underwritten by the Glen Dimplex Group. The door receipts from the event, which was attended by a crowd of 10,000, were donated directly to the charities.
Neil Naughton of Glen Dimplex said the charities selected reflect Notre Dame’s community-based learning programme in Ireland.
O’Callaghan said the Notre Dame pep rally was hugely enjoyable. “I think part of the problem in this country is that we’re far too cynical. We need to take a lesson from the Americans. I came away from the event floating on air because of the positivity,” she said.
“The importance of the Irish diaspora really manifested itself so obviously over the weekend. You hear about it but then you see thousands of Americans visiting Ireland. They love us, they spend money and they’re a friend to us at a time when Ireland desperately needs friends.”