Vine Group musical raises €2k for St Vincent de Paul
By Aideen O'Flaherty
THE Vine Group raised over €2,000 for local St Vincent de Paul conferences during their two livestreamed performances of their ‘A Christmas Canticle’ musical over the weekend.
Over 1,000 people viewed the performances, which were livestreamed via Facebook from two local churches.
Reiltin and Joe Geoghegan at the musical
The first performance was livestreamed from St Mary’s Priory on Friday evening, and a second one was held in St Mark’s Church in Springfield on Sunday evening.
As a result of government guidelines around the pandemic, the group, which is made up of parishioners from the Church of the Incarnation in Fettercairn, St Thomas the Apostle in Jobstown and St Mary’s Priory in Tallaght Village, couldn’t hold the performances in person like they have done in previous years.
Joe Geoghegan from the Vine Group told The Echo: “Between the Facebook page and the two churches webcams, we had over 1,000 people watching the livestream.
“Through the wonders of technology, it was a global audience, as was evident by the many messages of congratulations we received.”
The performances were held to raise funds for the Vine Group’s ‘Help Us Help Others’ campaign, which sees the group donating money to local branches of St Vincent de Paul, to help local people in need.
Mr Geoghegan added: “What is amazing about this crazy year we’ve had is that, in a very short timeframe, we raised over €2,000, which has been passed on to the families most in need.
“This money was passed on by local St Vincent de Paul conferences in Fettercairn, Jobstown, Dominic’s, Tallaght, Citywest and, for the first time, Brookfield.”
The Vine Group’s performances of ‘A Christmas Canticle’, which was written by Dublin composer Mick Langan, were well received by viewers who left positive comments and congratulations for the performers.
“The Vine Group would like to thank all our performers and volunteers, who stepped up and gave their time and talents without hesitation for the ‘Help Us Help Others’ campaign,” said Mr Geoghegan, “even those who couldn’t be there in person but through technology performed in ‘A Christmas Canticle’.
“We want to give thanks to St Mark’s and St Mary’s for allowing us to stream ‘A Christmas Canticle’ live from their churches and for their support.
“We would like to thank The Echo newspaper for their ongoing support for all the different events and programmes that the Vine Group run throughout the year.
“Finally, we would like to thank Mick Langan for composing such a beautiful musical and then trusting us to bring it to life. We hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and a hopeful new year.”
Donations to the group’s ‘Help Us Help Others’ campaign are still being accepted either via their GoFundMe page at www.tinyurl.com/VineGroup or by dropping into St Mark’s Parish Office.
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