City ‘is in debt to Cork Penny Dinners’

The demand for the services of one of Cork’s oldest charities has never been greater, the Lord Mayor of Cork has said.

Green Party councillor Dan Boyle, Lord Mayor of Cork, made his remarks at a reception held in City Hall for the volunteers of Cork Penny Dinners.

The charity was formally established in the city in 1888, but some believe it has origins dating back to soup kitchens run during the famine by the Society of Friends, also known as the Quakers.

Now, 137 years after it was formally established, Cork Penny Dinners feeds well in excess of 1,000 people every day, and, just as it was in Victorian times, it is kept afloat on the goodwill of the public, charitable donations, and the tireless work of volunteers.

Honouring the “wonderful people doing great things in this city” in City Hall, and hearing their stories, was one of the biggest joys and privileges of his term as Lord Mayor, Mr Boyle said.

“None of the stories has better than that of Penny Dinners,” he said.

“There’s a sad aspect, there’s the fact that the service is being provided to the scale that it has to be, and that we’re living in times where the need is greater than we want it to ever be, but the fact that it exists at all is testament to the great strength that exists in this city and particularly in the organisation itself.”

Mr Boyle, whose term of office as Lord Mayor concludes in June, asked that the Penny Dinners volunteers always remember “that these doors, the doors of what I call the people’s palace, should always be considered open, and what you do will be constantly acknowledged, and what you learn from your experiences should always be listened to and responded to”.

He pledged that he would do whatever he could for the charity because, he said, “as an individual citizen of this city, I am in debt for what you do, and in the honour I have of representing the city, the city is in your debt for the existence of Cork Penny Dinners”.

Caitríona Twomey, Penny Dinners volunteer co-ordinator, said everyone in the charity was deeply honoured to be given a reception in City Hall.

“Today means an awful lot to us to have the volunteers here, and the people who help out in Penny Dinners as well,” she said, thanking several people who had assisted the long-established charity for many years.

“They’re the people that have shaped Penny Dinners into what it is today, and they’re the people that we hope will get the chance to continue shaping it and keeping it what it is.”

Ms Twomey said it was a special honour to be joined by members of the Irish United Nations Veterans Association, and she praised the close connection between Penny Dinners and the Defence Forces.

“We’re all delighted to be here; it’s very special to us,” Ms Twomey told Mr Boyle, “and it means a lot that you were the one to ask us to come in as well.”