IF YOU’RE IN Dublin this Thursday night, and want to do something good for others this festive season, why not head to Croke Park for 7pm.
There, you can join thousands of other people as they attempt to break the world record for carol-singing at an event that has been organised by a ‘secret millionaire’ in aid of two charities.
Richard Mulcahy, who spent time in Limerick for RTÉ’s Secret Millionaire series, has organised the event to raise funds for Cliona’s Foundation and The Sanctuary.
The former featured in the RTÉ show, and was set up by parents who lost their child at a young age.
Mulcahy is trying to break the current world carol singing record and hopes to reach record-breaking status at the event on Thursday 19 December in Croke Park.
Cliona’s Foundation
Mulcahy explained that Cliona’s Foundation was set up by a couple called Brendan and Terry, whose daughter Cliona died of a brain tumour.
They were privileged to be able to spend the last three months of her life in hospital with her in Cork. When there, they noticed a lot of families not in the position to spend last days with their child because they couldn’t afford it.
The parents set up a foundation in honour of Cliona, and have given financial help to more than 100 families so they could spend time with their loved ones during their final days.
“I was incredibly impressed with them,” said Mulcahy, who has been working to highlight the work they do.
He has been blown away with the support he has received. Croke Park is being given to him to use for free, while the Army band is also performing for free. RTÉ star Miriam O’Callaghan will take part, while Lisa Hannigan, the Celtic Tenors, the Dublin Gospel Choir and Celine Byrne will perform at the stadium event.
Mulcahy was inspired by Sanctuary’s annual Christmas carols event, and is hoping to beat the world record – set in Seoul – of 15,111 people singing carols at the same time.
The show is open to all, including families, and tickets cost €15. It will be two hours of “forgetting about the commercial world coming into Christmas time”.
Deloitte will act as auditors and publish the accounts for the event, in light of the recent charity controversies.
The life-changing Secret Millionaire
(globeinst/YouTube)
Appearing on the Secret Millionaire show was a life-changing experience for Mulcahy.
“One realises very quickly that this huge condition about ‘making money is the most important thing in life’, it is actually the least important thing in life. It’s so much more. I was privileged to be in a position to be able to give back.”
Initially, he was unsure about taking part in The Secret Millionaire, as he is a private person. But after talking to other participants, he realised that the positives outweigh any negative impacts.
He described his visit to Limerick as “shocking on the one hand”. “Limerick is the second most underprivileged city in the whole of Ireland. It’s appalling what goes on in the country, we have made so much money, yet people are third generation unemployed in some families.”
Mulcahy believes “we walk through our lives not realising what is on the left and right of us”, and taking part in the programme showed him the conditions that so many people live in, and the capacity “to have both physical and emotional poverty”.
“I have no interest any more in making money – what’s the point of it all? You’re going to die and you’re going to give it to other people.” For him, if you have a roof over your head, and food to eat, you are very lucky indeed.
He said that wealth “confuses your brain to the realities of the world”.
The idea of people coming together and singing to raise money for those who need it shows Mulcahy what community is all about.
“There is that sense of doing something together as a team – achieving something as a team”.
Tickets can be bought at www.tickets.ie, or via or 1800901090. For more information, visit www.starschoirsandcarols.ie
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