London county stars' charitable donations to Covid-19 charity

London’s inter-county hurling and football teams will make a huge impact on vulnerable and elderly Irish people struggling with the coronavirus pandemic, after deciding to make a notable donation to charity.

Together, the two squads, who would have been right in the middle of their Championship had we not been in lockdown, have contributed £1,700 towards the London Irish Centre's Covid-19 Appeal. (Read more about it here: https://www.londonirishcentre.org/news/covid19response)

The Camden-based Irish Centre has reacted to help its local community during the pandemic, as it becomes clear that those most at risk are the elderly and vulnerable. The Irish are the oldest community in London and are more likely to live alone than others. So the charity has come up with the following ways to reach out to the Irish community in London while its centre is closed during the lockdown:

• Food parcel deliveries every Tuesday and Friday. 
• Hot lunches delivered to peoples' homes three times weekly - Monday, Wednesday and Friday. 
• The introduction of a health and wellbeing advice line for people concerned about their health during isolation. This service is run by our resident nurse, Ciara. Ciara can be reached on 07946202924 or ciaraward@londonirishcentre.org 
• Moving our Advice service to telephone and email to ensure those who need advice remain supported but without compromising their physical health. 
• They have expanded their telephone befriending with phone calls to vulnerable people up to twice daily, providing a friendly voice for social and emotional support. 
• Their Culture team is creating LDNIrishTV, which will broadcast the very best Irish culture and community online
• The introduction of Library Outreach which can now deliver books to people's homes. 

"We are hugely grateful to London GAA players for their generous support for our critical services," said London Irish Centre CEO Ellen Ryan. "As the Covid-19 pandemic creates new risks, needs and challenges, our work is needed more than ever.

"Our committed team of staff, volunteers and partners support people with a diverse mix of needs and vulnerabilities, and we simply could not carry out this work without Irish community backing. Go raibh míle maith agaibh."

The London hurlers' and footballers' donation also adds to a number of their players and backroom staff signing up as volunteers to directly help the Covid-19 appeal. Physio Rob Buckley is part of their specialist health advice line team and Brothers Pearse hurler Eoin O'Neill and Fr Murphy's Michael Burke have signed up to be 'telephone befrienders'.

Anyone else who wishes to help out as a volunteer can do so by contacting Volunteer Co-ordinator Sinéad Whelan on sineadwhelan@londonirishcentre.org or on 07947111786.

If the fixture schedule had remained untouched, London's hurlers would be opening their Christy Ring campaign against Down in Ireland this upcoming weekend, before welcoming Roscommon and Kildare to Ruislip to conclude the group stages.

London's footballers would just be off the back of the Connacht Senior Football Chasmpionship tie in Ruislip, and would hopefully be hard training for a Connacht semi-final now, or awaiting an All-Ireland qualifier game.

London football captain Liam Gavaghan and hurler Kevin Reid spoke to the Irish World last week about their donations to the London Irish Centre, as well as their thoughts on the pause in championship action. You can read the article here: https://www.theirishworld.com/london-county-players-respond-to-irish-centres-covid-19-appeal/