Proceeds of “Ireland’s Call” video presented to hospital boss to be used for a recreation area for staff
“I know you couldn’t help us in a hands-on way but I cannot thank you enough for what you did for us. I thank you from the bottom of my heart, the money that you have donated is going towards a rest and recreation area for staff.”
So said the CEO of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Fiona Brady, yesterday as she accepted a cheque for €30,750 on behalf of the frontline workers at the hospital, from Drogheda’s postmen and women.
The money was the proceeds of a video of the local postal service workers singing Phil Coulter’s rugby anthem “Ireland’s Call” which, when they recorded it in May last year they dared to think might raise €10,000.
The video was recorded in a morning with input from staff and friends and when it was put online it very quickly went viral and the money started to pour in.
The original €10k target was smashed within two days and before they knew it they had topped €25,000.
The total kept on rising and yesterday the postmen were delighted to present a cheque for the grand total of €30,750 to the staff of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital.
Welcoming Ms Brady and other senior staff from OLOL to the presentation yesterday, the Manager of Drogheda sorting office Tom Maguire thanked everyone involved in the production of the video and also Phil Coulter for allowing them to use it.
He thanked David Leddy for “doing all the magic” with the background music and for acting as musical director. Also coming in for a good mention was Ritchie Hatch who shot the wonderful drone footage for the video.
Tom revealed that Ritchie’s biggest problem during the shoot was that seagulls mistook the drone for another bird and kept attacking it!
Completing the production was Ben Corcoran who pulled all the video material together with the audio recording which was done by Dave McEwen from Ventry Recording studios to make the final cut.
Special delivery… Tom Maguire and Odie Mc Master of An Post with the Director of Midwifery at OLOL Grainne Milne (on the bike) and CEO Fiona Brady. Photo: Andy Spearman.
Of course the people who are the most deserving of thanks are the 80 plus staff members of An Post in Drogheda who had given their all to the project spreading the word as they went about their daily deliveries.
“The positivity around this project was incredible” Tom said. Many people who perhaps were not familiar with online donations or Gofundme campaign just gave their postman a cash donation at the door.”
On behalf of all his colleagues Tom expressed heartfelt thanks to all the frontline workers in the OLOL Hospital and their families for the “supreme care, dedication and hard work during the pandemic.
“People worldwide are in no doubt who the real heroes in this battle were and continue to be and that’s yourselves.” He also remembered all those who had died and their families who were left to grieve. “Our sympathies and prayers go out to all of those families” he said.
“I hope his gesture goes some way to show you how much you are appreciated and that the support and admiration that the public have given you and the lives you have saved will be an inspiration to you to continue with your amazing work” Tom said to the OLOL staff representatives as he presented the cheque. “We really appreciate what you have done…”
Accepting both the cheque and the words of thanks, Fiona Brady of the OLOL said that there had been many dark and harrowing times in the Lourdes.
“… but we have amazing staff and we simply got on with it because we wanted to do our best for the people of Drogheda and of Louth” she said.
“I’m not an emotional woman but I was when I saw that video. It just made me realise that when things were really dark for us in the hospital at that time that the people of Drogheda and Louth were thinking about us and how they could make things better for the staff”.
