DUBLIN’S CHRISTMAS LIGHTS have been switched on by an 11-year-old girl at Temple Street Children’s Hospital, in a joint effort to raise money for the hospital, and to promote public support for Irish businesses this Christmas.

The lights on Grafton Street, Henry Street, South William Street, Capel Street and others have been turned on as of 7pm tonight.

DublinTown hosted a live broadcast from the balcony of Bewleys Café, streamed on its Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages.

Symone, an 11-year-old girl from Co Westmeath, turned the lights on this year.

Simone at Temple Street Children's Hospital. DublinTown DublinTown

• You can donate to the Temple Street Foundation here.

DublinTown, an initiative of city centre business owners, fund the lights each year.

Their Christmas lights consist of over 1 million low energy LED light bulbs, with over 300,000 light bulbs on Grafton Street alone, and around 4km of lights in total. 

Richard Guiney CEO of DublinTown said: “The DublinTown Christmas lights is by far the biggest task that we undertake for our business members and people of Dublin each year. 2020 has been an extremely challenging year for Dublin city centre businesses.

DublinTown has shared that difficulty with our members. This year the erecting of the Christmas lights means so much more than any other year and we would ask people to come and support the city centre businesses at this special time. Stores have been gearing up for Christmas and are ready to meet customer needs and safety.

See DublinatChristmas.ie and DublinTown.ie for more details.

Last week, Cork County Council turned on its Christmas lights in towns and villages around the county to begin its ‘A Real Cork Christmas’ initiative. This includes a drive to encourage people to support local Cork businesses this festive season.