A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Celebrity 'thank you' messages mean a lot to hospice foundation
The Irish Hospice Foundation marked its first National Thank You Day yesterday by asking people to sign a giant thank you card on Dublin’s Grafton Street, writes Alison Healy.
The project has the support of actors Gabriel Byrne and Martin Sheen, writer Maeve Binchy and singer Sinéad O’Connor, all of whom wrote messages in The Thank You Book. It is a “gratitude” journal in which to note the good things in life and is being promoted for the Christmas market.
Yesterday was chosen as Thank You Day to coincide with Thanksgiving Day in the US. The foundation hopes to make it an annual event. Funds raised from the sale of cards and The Thank You Book will go to the children’s hospice home care programme. The cards and book are available from www.thankyouproject.ie, book shops and card shops.
Christmas fair is first of four
A Christmas fair will be held in the Knox Hall in Monkstown, Co Dublin, tomorrow and on the following three Saturdays.
The fair, which will run from 11.00am to 5.00pm will feature a variety of Christmas gift ideas including food, ceramics, clothing and jewellery. The fair is being run in support of Action Breast Cancer.
'Better Together' awards announced
Blarney Community Council, Dublin Youth Theatre and Longford Women's Link are the inaugural winners of the Better Together Awards, an online initiative by The Wheel, a national body representing 860 community and voluntary groups.
The winners each received a €3,000 cash prize. The winning videos can be viewed at
www.bettertogether.ie.
Warning over Murphy report
Concern has been expressed that promises made following the publication of the Murphy report "will not be fulfilled in the current dire economic circumstance", writes
Patsy McGarry.
Maeve Lewis of the One in Four group said yesterday: "We must reaffirm our commitment to protecting the children of today. We owe this much at least to those who have suffered so greatly."
The Murphy report, Ms Lewis said, "verified the accounts of survivors who for years had been trying to bring the disgraceful behaviour of the diocesan authorities to public attention".
Meanwhile the Catholic bishops have issued a leaflet, Friday Penance, following on Pope Benedict's pastoral letter to Ireland's Catholics last March in which he suggested initiatives to support renewal.
The leaflet suggests forms of Friday penance such as abstaining from meat or alcohol, visiting the Blessed Sacrament or helping the poor and sick.