2018 was a busy year for Roscrea hospice movement

2018 was a phenomenally successful year for the Roscrea fundraising branch of North Tipperary Hospice

It culminated in the presentation of a cheque by members of the committee to Josie O'Grady from North Tipperary Hospice for €50,000.

To say that the people of our locality donated almost €1,000 every week to Hospice last year is an amazing fact that we are all extremely proud of.

It takes a coordinated effort of a committee of over 20 people chaired by Anthony Bourke to run our various events. There are also many anonymous donations by people whether in person or donated by other groups in our area.

There are the usual events that many people are familiar with such as the annual coffee mornings and sunflower day. At Christmas time we had Winnie’s Cake and carol singing. The wren walk is now a huge event on St Stephens’s day and we also have our annual church gate collection in December. A new idea in 2018 was the Remembrance Tree which was situated in the offices of the Credit Union with their kind support. We also had a very generous donation from Clonakenny and a coffee morning in Coffey’s chemist.

In May of 2018 we also staged a very successful concert in Racket Hall hotel with Don Stiffe as the headline artist. This event also featured local artists as well as the children of Teresa Larkin School of music.

The organising committee of Knock tractor run also donated a sizeable portion of profits to the hospice as did Dunkerrin drama group.

Last September was our fifth year to run the 24-hour stationary cycle which generated almost €10,000.

It was with great pleasure that the committee presented Marcus and Irene Sweeney with the 2018 Hospice Hero award after the wren walk. The Sweeneys have been great supporters of the hospice and allow us to use their home every St Stephens’s day.

We would like to extend our grateful thanks to the people of Roscrea.