It’s getting close now
It’s December so Christmas is actually getting very close now! This week saw the lights on the crib at The Lough officially turned on. The crib will be lit up every evening until 6 January. It’s one of the signs in Cork that Christmas is coming!
Another one is the reappearance of a crib on Patrick St. Yes, the official launch of the annual SHARE campaign has taken place this week too. The SHARE 2025 fundraising campaign starts with Yellow Day this year. Many of the students of SHARE do good work throughout the year and not just at Christmas. Some of them visit SHARE residents and day care users each week.
They are calling on the people of Cork to check in with the elderly in their community over this Christmas period. They suggest you stop for a chat, a cup of tea, or offer to do a job for a neighbour, a family member or someone in the community.
Schools from across the city and county will wear yellow and make a donation to SHARE this year as part of the annual campaign. Student and teacher volunteers are also invited to support the annual campaign this year which will run from 12–24 December. During this period, students from across city and county will take to the streets to raise much needed funds for the elderly in Cork.
The focus of the 2025 campaign is on the refurbishment of Cnoc Mhuire, a SHARE property in Shandon, home to 25 residents. The complex is in need of modernisation, according to SHARE. They plan to put a major investment into the redevelopment.
There is another marker of Christmas that is not so welcome. Flu season is well underway and the Mercy University Hospital (MUH) has been particularly under pressure.
On Tuesday MUH announced that its emergency department (ED) was “experiencing exceptionally high levels of activity, leading to significant delays for patients awaiting assessment and treatment".
A spokesperson for the hospital said it is “managing a high volume of complex cases, which is placing considerable pressure on its services”.
It appealed to the public to consider all available care options before attending the emergency department, which is “intended for genuine emergencies and life-threatening conditions only”.
The hospital made the same announcement last Thursday. This week the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) said the HSE have failed to adequately plan for flu season with the number of people on trolleys rising fast once more.
Unfortunately these warnings have also become part of Christmas traditions in Ireland.