Goat Street has a ball on a giveaway night

THE Goat Street Wren broke with tradition at their ball night in McCarthy’s bar on Saturday when they handed out cheques to four local charities. It’s not that there was anything new in a Wren giving money to charity, but giving away every last cent they collected was going above and beyond the call of generosity.

If Goat Street and all the other Dingle Wrens stuck with the tradition of old, then any money left over after the Wren’s Day would have gone ‘behind the counter’ on the ball night. That part of Wren tradition has disappeared over the past 20 or 30 years and now the Wrens donate most of what they collect to local charities, keeping only a modicum aside for the ball night.

But Goat Street abandoned even that nod to long established tradition when they shared €3,000 equally between West Kerry Care of the Aged, Dingle Coast and Cliff and the West Kerry Branch of the Kerry Hospice Foundation. They gave another €300 to Vincent Manning to help his fundraising campaign for a defibrillator unit that he hopes to locate somewhere back the Quay.

It was no ‘dry’ night at the ball though. Not alone did the crowd in Goat Street collect a ball of money on the Wren, but they also got local businesses to sponsor the ball night. Sheehy’s, Garvey’s, the Dingle Distillery and ‘your man from Cronin’s cider’ all helped the cause and the ball night carried on with high spirits, tunes and songs and it was only with the greatest of restraint that the Goat Street stalwarts resisted the temptation to go for a march around the town to give an early start to the festive season of2020.

Meanwhile, the Goat Street Wren’s donation on Saturday night was greatly welcomed by the West Kerry Branch of the Kerry Hospice Foundation. “The total amount collected [by the Hospice] in West Kerry during 2019 was a fantastic €29,000,” said Hospice Treasurer and PRO Ursula O’Connell. “Already this year we have received donations from Ballinasaor Wren, Goat Street Wren and Scoil Chaithlin Naofa, Cill Mhic an Domhnaigh. All of these groups have been consistently generous to the Hospice and we are truly thankful for their very kind support. These funds help provide a wide range of patient comfort and palliative care services throughout Kerry.”

The Goat Street donations bring the total money raised for charity by the Dingle town Wrens to €8,000. At Wren balls held since the start of the year, the Sráid Eoin Wren donated €700 to West Kerry Care of the Aged and €300 to the Dingle Camphill Community; the Quay Wren donated €1,700 to the RNLI, and the Green & Gold donated €2,000 to the Kerry Cancer Support Group.

Members of the Goat Street Wren with representatives of West Kerry Care of the Aged, the West Kerry Branch of the Kerry Hospice Foundation, Dingle Coast and Cliff and Vincent Manning’s defibrillator campaign who each recieved donations from the Goat Street Wren at the ball night in McCarthy’s bar.