{"id":251192,"date":"2025-12-25T18:44:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T18:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/251192\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T18:44:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T18:44:17","slug":"music-and-companionship-at-rds-christmas-dinner-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/251192\/","title":{"rendered":"Music and companionship at RDS Christmas dinner \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Around 400 people gathered at the RDS<\/a> in Dublin<\/a> for the annual Christmas Day dinner for those in need.<\/p>\n

The event, now in its 101st year, is organised by the Catholic order of the Knights of St Columbanus. <\/p>\n

Those in attendance received light refreshments on arrival, before being served a three-course meal of soup, a traditional Christmas<\/a> dinner of turkey and ham, and Christmas pudding.<\/p>\n

A further 5,500 takeaway meals were distributed alongside Alone<\/a>, the Simon Community<\/a>, St Vincent de Paul<\/a>, Age Action Ireland and Dublin City Council<\/a>, to those in need in their homes across the Greater Dublin Area.<\/p>\n

Several musicians and other performers provided entertainment at the RDS, with more than 200 volunteers on hand to help. Lord Mayor of Dublin Ray McAdam was also present. <\/p>\n

Paul Fagan (48), originally from Ballybrack in Dublin, said he has been coming to the event \u201con and off\u201d for the last 30 years.<\/p>\n

\"PaulPaul Fagan (left) and Ian MacCluskey at the dinner. Photograph: Bryan O\u2019Brien
\n \"MiriamMiriam O’Leary at the RDS on Christmas Day. Photograph: Bryan O\u2019Brien<\/p>\n

Mr Fagan was homeless<\/a> for 28 years before being provided with long-term accommodation by Dublin Simon Community last year. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe people that run this are absolutely amazing because if it wasn\u2019t for these, I would be sitting in my flat on my own thinking about my daughter and things,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI always need to get out and come to things like this and meet people and just not to be on your own. It\u2019s very hard being homeless for so long and shaking that off. Twenty-eight years is a long time to be on the streets, living in flats, temporary hostels.\u201d <\/p>\n

Ian MacCluskey (57), originally from Glasnevin, said this was his first time coming to the Knights of St Columbanus Christmas dinner. <\/p>\n

Mr MacCluskey is currently homeless and has been staying at a hostel in the city centre over recent months. He said two of his brothers had died over the past several years and his family situation \u201chasn\u2019t been the same since\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"SiblingsSiblings Maria and James Byrne pull a cracker at the RDS Christmas dinner. Photograph: Bryan O\u2019Brien<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t want to spend Christmas on my own so I thought it would be a bit of craic here,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s a few fellas I know from the hostel here. It can be tough at Christmas. Otherwise I would just be sitting in my room watching the telly.\u201d <\/p>\n

Another Dublin man, who did not wish to be identified, was homeless for 26 years before taking over his partner\u2019s flat over 10 years ago, after the partner died.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve no family, I can\u2019t see my daughter, it\u2019s going through the courts at the moment,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s nice coming up and seeing some people who you know. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey might have fallen into homelessness through drugs or drink or through no fault of their own. I came here last year, there were five of us that came. Now four of them are dead. They died this year on the streets.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GlenGlen Costello dances with volunteer Gillian Callaghan at the RDS on Christmas Day. Photograph: Bryan O\u2019Brien \"MichaelMichael McCabe enjoying the festivities at the RDS. Photograph: Bryan O\u2019Brien <\/p>\n

Tom Nolan, treasurer of the Knights of St Columbanus, said: \u201cWe just feel there are a lot of people at Christmas, who for various reasons, it might be just purely loneliness, homelessness, refugees, that need to be catered for in an event like this. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe make no discrimination whatsoever, you can come here in your fur coat and your Rolls-Royce and you\u2019re still made welcome. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, it\u2019s happened on occasions people from the plush surroundings of Ballsbridge have come over. We had a couple a few years ago who said \u2018can we come over and join you, we\u2019re on our own\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Around 400 people gathered at the RDS in Dublin for the annual Christmas Day dinner for those in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[50374,9,10,16838,52,784,18,13,14,6,24081,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,12862,130524,28943,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-251192","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-alone","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-christmas","12":"tag-dublin","13":"tag-dublin-city-council","14":"tag-eire","15":"tag-featured-news","16":"tag-featurednews","17":"tag-headlines","18":"tag-homeless-crisis","19":"tag-ie","20":"tag-ireland","21":"tag-latest-news","22":"tag-latestnews","23":"tag-main-news","24":"tag-mainnews","25":"tag-news","26":"tag-rds","27":"tag-simon-community","28":"tag-st-vincent-de-paul","29":"tag-top-stories","30":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115781690558929147","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}