Irish Festival Branch activities 2007

Irish Festival Group on tour

Irish Festival volunteers had a presence at seven events during 2007. The volunteers are drawn from Samaritan branches the length and breadth of Ireland. All of the volunteers perform Festival duties over and above their normal duties within their respective branches. The volunteers are required to undertake mandatory ongoing training every year to ensure that their skills are fine tuned to ensure that they can meet the needs of their callers. This is paramount for all Irish Festival Group volunteers along with the Samaritan principles of commitment, confidentiality and listening in a non-judgmental manner. 

 

Northwest 200, Portrush - May

The Northwest 200 (NW 200) event in Portrush, Co Londonderry, kicked off the Festival season of events providing face-to-face emotional support to those in need. This is the biggest international motor cycle race event in Ireland and commands huge crowds over the final day’s racing. Festival volunteers provided emotional support to predominantly male callers in the Eglinton Street area of the town and we are used to this as it was our fourth consecutive year at the event.

 

Cork Midsummer Festival - June

Cork Midsummer Festival was a debut event for Festival Group this year. It proved to be one of the busiest weekends for the volunteers on duty who spoke to nearly 200 people over the weekend, many in obvious emotional distress. The volunteers were based in Patrick Street, in the Dawn Square area of Cork city centre.

 

Oxegen Music Festival - July

Festival continued to provide emotional support to many young people, mostly in their twenties, attending Oxegen near Punchestown, over a wet weekend in July. The conditions over that weekend proved to be challenging for music devotees and Samaritans alike. It was a common theme for everyone to be kitted out in wellies and be used to standing ankle deep in mud!

 

Galway Arts Festival - July

Festival volunteers have provided emotional support at the Arts Festival in Galway city centre for almost ten years. Based in the Eyre Square area of the city, volunteers meet and talk to a wide variety of age groups in what is a vibrant and busy weekend with much revelry played out on the city streets.

 

Fleadh Ceoil, Tullamore - August

“The Fleadh” opened for the first of a two year stint in Tullamore, Co Offaly over the traditional last weekend in August. The event is the biggest celebration of Irish music and culture in Ireland and attracts crowds approaching 250,000 during the week long event. Festival volunteers have been attending the event for a number of years during it’s staging in the many towns throughout Ireland.

 

Electric Picnic Music Festival - Stradbally, Co Laois  - August/September

Now in its third year, the Electric Picnic Festival has received Samaritans Festival volunteers for the past two years. Based in Stradbally village, the volunteers again provided emotional support within the festival site to our usual target audience of predominantly male callers. Unlike the “Oxegen” event in July, the weather was much more kinder to all in attendance!

 

Lisdoonvarna Matchmaking Festival - September

The little village of Lisdoonvarna, in County Clare, provides the setting for the oldest and most unique event in Ireland, the Matchmaking festival. Held every year during the month of September, the event draws men and women from all over Ireland desperate to find a partner or even a wife or husband. Many visitors are from a rural background and do not always find it easy to express their emotions. That is why festival volunteers have been providing their own brand of face-to-face listening skills to those in emotional need. The volunteers are now as permanent and visible each year at the event as many of the other fixtures in the village which comes to life from morning to night with hundreds of people thronging the streets and pubs. The volunteers are based in the village square and also have the Festival white van in attendance which is bedecked with the Samaritan national telephone helpline details.