MORE THAN €1.1 million has been raised for the Society of St Vincent de Paul (SVP) since Daniel and Majella O’Donnell gave their support for the charity on last Friday’s Late Late Show. 

The charity today thanked Irish people for their donations over the past weekend. 

The O’Donnell couple was interviewed on RTÉ’s the Late Late Show on Friday and they asked the Irish public to support SVP during this time. 

Kieran Stafford, national president of the charity, said the charity has been continuing to offer support through online help, phone calls and through the postal service. 

“With the increasing need of SVP services across the country and income drastically reduced from the closure of our 234 shops and the cancellation of church-gate and shopping centre collections, finding public support is more important than ever. 

“The response to Daniel and Majella’s call for help, supported by the Late Late Show, has been above all our expectations. We are so thankful to the Irish people who have once again shown their incredible generosity to their neighbours.” 

Most of the donations sent since Friday came with the request to be used by a local SVP centre.  

Speaking on the show, Majella read from a letter sent by a parent who contacted SVP after struggling to pay for food due to a loss in income from Covid-19 restrictions. 

The letter said the charity was “understanding and considerate” and they wrote that it has been a “great help over the last couple of weeks”.  

The charity said it helped more than 160,000 people last year and expects this figure to rise again this year. Information on how to donate to SVP can be found here.