Kind pupils donate Communion money to the Children’s Hospital

A GROUP of charitable school children from Scoil Aonghusa JNS and Scoil Íosa raised €700 for Crumlin Children’s Hospital by donating some of their Communion money.

The children’s donations were given to a representative of the hospital at a cheque presentation at St Aengus’s Church on Tuesday morning.

When they were preparing for the sacrament, the children decided that they wanted to donate some of their Communion money to a good cause, and they chose the hospital.

Fr Ben Moran, who celebrated the children’s Communion and prepared them for it, told The Echo: “A lot of the children are from St Aengus’s, Tymon North and Balrothery.

“They would’ve been down to Crumlin Hospital for different things, and they’d have had treatment and they would’ve known other children in school who’d gone there.

“A child in one of the schools had cancer, got treatment in the hospital and got the all-clear, so there are a lot of connections there.”

The children’s idea to donate to the hospital was supported by Fr Moran, and their teachers Ms Kiernan from Scoil Íosa, and Ms O’Connell, Mr Butler and Ms McGinley from Scoil Aonghusa JNS.

They received the sacrament of Communion in May, and two weeks later envelopes were handed out in class for children to anonymously donate if they chose to.

The envelopes were collected by the teachers who counted it and found that the children had donated €700 to the hospital.

“I was surprised and taken aback, but I was absolutely delighted with the generosity of the children and their kindness,” added Fr Moran.

This sentiment was echoed by the principal of Scoil Aonghusa JNS, Ann Marie Blake, who praised the children for their charitable endeavour.

“From a school point of view, we want to say congratulations and well done to the children for donating some of their Communion money to the very worthy cause of Crumlin Children’s Hospital,” she said.

“Here in the school, there is a longstanding tradition of the children sharing what they have with others, and as a Catholic school our ethos involves giving to worthy causes.

“We’ve very proud of the children for giving some of their gifts from their Communion to the hospital.

“The hospital is so local and some of the children have spent time there and some of our families have children who are connected with it, and we’re all very grateful for the wonderful work they do.”

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