18.12.2013
Black Santa Appeal 2013 Underway at St Ann’s Church, Dublin
The 2013 Black Santa sit out at St Ann’s Church on Dawson Street, Dublin, was officially launched today by the Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Revd Dr Michael Jackson and the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Oisín Quinn. The children’s choir of the Kildare Place School sang festive songs for the launch of the annual Christmas charity appeal. Taney school choir had already performed earlier in the day.
The appeal, which continues outside the church every day right up until Christmas Eve, had a ‘soft’ start yesterday to facilitate the number of choirs wishing to take part before the start of the school holidays on Friday. Vicar of St Ann’s, the Revd David Gillespie, reported a great first day with people donating over €5,000l in a matter of hours.
David and his clerical colleagues along with staff from the church will collect each day from 10.00 am until 6.00 pm (apart from Sunday when hours will be reduced). They will be joined by different choirs each lunchtime including the choirs of Castleknock National School, St James’s Primary School, Taney Primary School, Catholic University Schools, John Scottus School, Loretto College, the Seafield Singers and the ICA Choir.
The Black Santa sit out is modeled on a similar appeal, which has been run by successive Deans of St Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast for many years. It became known as the Black Santa appeal because of the long heavy black cloaks worn by the clergy to keep out the cold.
The money collected this year will be distributed to St Vincent de Paul, the Salvation Army, the Dublin Simon Community, Protestant Aid, Trust and the Church of Ireland Overseas Aid (Bishops’ Appeal) along with a number of smaller charities.
“We’re looking forward once again to witnessing the generosity of the people of Dublin and we urge them to support us this year as generously as they have done in the past. I want to assure people that every cent that is donated goes directly to the charities concerned. There is no administration cost whatsoever,” the Revd David Gillespie stated.
Photo caption: The Lord Mayor of Dublin, Oisín Quinn, the Revd David Gillespie and Archbishop Michael Jackson are pictured with the choir of Kildare Place School.