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MORE THAN 5,500 meals are set to be served by the Knights of St Columbanus for its 100th Christmas Day Dinner in Dublin.
Some 300 volunteers will be on hand to serve around 550 sit-down meals for homeless people and anyone in need in the RDS.
There are also plans to distribute around 5,000 take away dinners and 2,500 festive gift bags.
The Knights of St Columbanus has partnered with organisations such as SVP, Alone, Simon, the HSE, Dublin City Council, Age Action Ireland, and other groups who will bring meals and festive gift bags to people in their own homes or shelters.
The event starts at 11am and the Knights of St Columbanus will provide a free shuttle bus for guests to and from the RDS, with pick-up points in central Dublin, including Clery’s Clock on O’Connell Street, the Four Courts and the Mansion House.
As well as a three-course meal, there will also be entertainment such as Irish dancers and musicians.
The Knights of St Columbanus is an Irish Catholic organisation founded in Belfast in 1915 by James K O’Neill.
The first Christmas Day Dinner, in 1924, was provided to 500 guests, mostly homeless men, in Dublin’s Mansion House.
For the first 70 years, the event was hosted at the Mansion House but due to increasing demand, it was relocated to the RDS, where it has been held annually since 1994.
Trevor Macnamara, chair of the Christmas Day Dinner Organising Committee, thanked the RDS management for “generously offering the venue to make this charitable event possible”.
“My appreciation extends to all the different generations of volunteers who have been involved over the past 100 years—those working in the kitchen, managing parking, escorting guests to their meals, as well as the drivers and performers who make this event special, and to those who are no longer with us but have left a remarkable legacy for the event,” said Macnamara.
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I wonder will the Marxist rabble who recently had the audacity to gatecrash a Christmas mass in progress at a Dublin Cathedral..an outrage completely ignored by most of the media..to make some point about Israel and Gaza be out feeding the homeless on Christmas day? Somehow I very much doubt it!
@Jonn: I don’t think that Hamas or their fan clubs are noted for their charitable endeavours, especially around Christian festivals.
@Thomas Sheridan:
That’s true! I’m curious why the leftist rent a mob chose a Christian ceremony to disrupt..luck of the draw I suppose? Would they have been as quick to invade a mosque, or even a synagogue,which in the circumstances might have been more aligned with their ’cause’? But like the cowards they are they chose a church,an easy,safe target.
@Jonn:
Away sking with Mummy And Papa.
@H Woo:
Quite possibly, the ‘climate crisis’ will have to wait while they fly into Italy for a nice festive break from virtue signalling!
@Jonn: If Jesus was born now (assuming he was ever born or existed) he would undeniably be Palestinian. Unfortunately, the odds of him surviving today in Palestine might not be very good.
@Jack Hayes:
Jack I 100% support the Palestinians, and denounce everything Israel is doing,it’s an abomination, but still doesn’t explain why these morons thought disrupting a Christmas mass was relevant to their cause?
@Jonn: jesus was Marxist before Marxism
@Jonn: Mayne highlight the churchs silence on the GAZA situation
@Niall Lappin:
The church hasn’t been silent
You just haven’t been listening to it
@Niall Lappin:
How come they didn’t rock up to a synagogue waving their Palestinian flags?Probably more appropriate especially given senior Jewish figures in Irelands unquestioning support for Israel and the IDF? Or would the optics not have looked right, easier to pick on the usual whipping boy,the catholic church!
@Niall Lappin:
It’s always funny when people who wouldn’t be caught dead in a church enlighten us with the true meaning of Christianity!
@Jack Hayes:
He was Jewish
My father was in the Knights and he used to go to the mansion house every Christmas morning to bring comfort and joy and a fantastic Christmas Dinner to the homeless and make sure they weren’t forgotten about.
Excellent work by all those involved, a heartwarming show of Christianity
May God Bless them all.
@JP Fox: may the force be with you too
Nobody should be hungry.
Logion 29 : (L’évangile de Thomas).
Jésus disait : ‘ si la chair est venu à l’existence à cause de l’esprit,
c’est une merveille,
mais si l’esprit est venu à l’existence à cause du corps,
c’est une merveille de merveille.
mais moi, je me m’émerveille de ceci :
Comment cet être qui Est,
peut-il habiter ce néant ?’
(CF MT. 21, 41; MC 12, 11 ; JN 1, 14 ; 1 TM 3, 16 ; RM 8, 13 ; 1 CO 5, 3.)
Translated into French by Jean -Yyves Leloup.
@offside again: Go home bot. You’re drunk
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