The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
A concert to raise funds for the people of Ukraine will be held in Shannon on Wednesday night (March 9), writes Owen Ryan.
Cuppa Tea TV (which is run by Damian O’Rourke), the Love Shannon Community Council and Shannon Leisure Centre all came together to organise the event.
“We have Luka Bloom, David Hope, the Shannon Gospel Choir. There’ll be a good few from Youth in Music singing at it, and a lot of other locals, there’ll probably be 15 or 16 playing on the night,” said Damian.
The proceeds are all for the Irish Red Cross and explaining how it would work, Damian said, “It’s donations on the door, anyone can come along and throw in whatever they want into the bucket. We’re working on a GoFundMe link, so anyone who can’t make it on the night can make donations through that.”
Karl Fogarty, manager of Shannon Leisure Centre, was the person who got the ball rolling on the event, says Damian.
“The idea came from Karl Fogarty in the Shannon Leisure Centre. He gave me a call and asked if I’d get involved and I said of course. It’s Karl’s idea, he got the Leisure Centre involved, Love Shannon are involved and Cuppa Tea, we’re all pulling together to make it happen.”
The Leisure Centre has been a major hub for local efforts to help the Ukraine.
“There’s a lot of good stuff happening in the Leisure Centre, there’s truck loads of supplies going out to Ukraine from there, people have been dropping off all the different things that are needed.
“Karl wanted to do something else so he got onto him then, and it being his idea, it’s nice to have it on in the Leisure Centre. We’re going to turn a hall into a venue for one night.”
Damian has also been involved in arranging local participation in The Big Busk for Focus Ireland on Friday.
“We’ll have busking from 4pm to 8pm in the Town Centre, all the money raised will go to Focus Ireland to help with the homeless crisis.
“There are events arranged in the cities and if anyone outside of the main areas wanted to be part of it, they had to register and apply. I applied for Shannon and we’ll be going from 4-8pm. There’ll be busking in Wolfe Tones afterwards as well, they’ll be going from 8pm.”
