They are the new generation who hold sway in Irish charity circles. They raise money - and standards of style - at red carpet balls and glittering social gatherings. Deirdre McQuillan talks to just a few of the well-established players and to rising new stars in Irish fundraising.
CAROLINE DOWNEY ISPCC/Childline/Christina Noble Foundation
Caroline Downey's 20-year voluntary involvement with Irish charities began after 15-year-old Ann Lovett was found dead in a church graveyard in Granard, along with her newborn child. "I remember being so shocked, and thinking how alone she must have been, and somebody said if you feel that strongly about it, you should join the ISPCC."
She has been raising funds for Childline since its foundation 18 years ago, and produces the annual Childline Concert at the Point, now in its ninth year, which generates huge awareness and raises €250,000 annually. She has also produced the Meteor Ireland Music Awards, which donate a €100,000 humanitarian award each year. Recipients have included Adi Roche, Sister Stanislaus, Bono, who donated the money to Goal, and Elton John, who donated the funds to his Aids organisation. Downey was also the organiser of the three Brown Thomas Supermodel shows at the Point, in conjunction with Ali Hewson.
Her biggest campaign was Pennies From Heaven, based on the euro changeover, from which she netted €8 million for eight charities. She also raised €750,000 for the Northern Fund for Reconciliation from an event with Bill Clinton she organised in Dublin Castle five years ago "on the basis of a donation to the ISPCC" involving Bob Geldof, Bono and Richard Harris. "I just arranged something I would have like to have gone to myself," she says. Captains of industry paid £10,000 per table at the event. "Today, that would be €15,000, but the average is now €2,500 to €3,500 a table. I can make €600,000 at a ball."
Downey is a regular guest, with Louis Walsh, at Elton John's Diamond and Tiara Ball held at his home in Windsor, which raises in excess of £1.4 million annually. She reckons this one is run the way parties should be. "You wear as many diamonds as possible, and that is never enough." What she has learnt from her years fundraising is that "Irish people are incredibly generous."
WHAT SHE WEARS: "I am absolutely extreme in what I wear. I wear flat shoes during the day and live in trousers, jumpers and jackets. For balls, I like full glamour, the long dress and the diamonds and looking fabulous. I buy ball dresses from Amanda Wakeley, who is the best in London, and Synan O'Mahony also makes some things for me. I shop in Brown Thomas, Lainey and Louise Kennedy. I am a mix and match person, a big fan of Ghost, and if I look as if I am wearing a suit, I am not. I also have some nice pieces from John Rocha. This is a 1940s wedding coat which I bought in Norma Kamali Vintage in New York. I love the 1940s, and Art Deco jewellery. It was a very glamorous period and a time of true elegance."
DEIRDRE KELLY Angel's Quest
Deirdre Kelly founded this charity eight years ago to raise funds for respite care for children between the ages of four and 15, after her first child was diagnosed with West syndrome. The first Angel's Quest respite home, "a kids' special needs hotel rather than an institution", opened in Glenageary in 1999. There are now three up and running and three more in the pipeline. "We need €7 million, and have raised about €2 million in partnership with St John of Gods over the past few years," she says.
In 1999 she initiated the glamorous Angels's Ball, in conjunction with Brown Thomas, where she was then working, and brought together a number of people in the fashion business. It was the first time a charity event had drawn fashion and fundraising together in such a high profile way. "Women needed serious gúnas and it became known as the fashion event of the year," she recalls. Since then, it has become a fixed item on the fashion calendar, and this year's event at the O'Reilly Hall on November 12th raised just under €200,000.
WHAT SHE WEARS: "If you buy serious designer gúnas, which are expensive at around €2,000, it is very hard to wear them again to another event. I shop in New York where you can always find something inexpensive, but I have at least one or two social events a week. As you mature, you invest in more classic items that won't date. You can get two to three years from an Armani outfit, and I then swap around the classics. I love glamour, but now I would prefer to inject capital into face creams rather than clothes. I love anything by Helen Cody, hers are investment pieces, subtle and not over-the-top. I believe in holding on to nice things and have kept all my evening wear from the past 15 years in the belief that fashion comes in cycles. I never give anything away, so a lot of pals come to borrow. "This dusty pink satin sheath with a matching cape and sequin shoes came to €600, which I think is superb value, but I probably won't wear it again."
SHARON SMURFIT The Children's Sunshine Home
The Children's Sunshine Home, founded in 1926, is a voluntary healthcare organisation which looks after terminally ill children. It is in Leopardstown, Co Dublin, and currently has residential beds for 33 children and provides respite care. Smurfit has been involved since January of this year, when she was asked to fundraise for a €6 million hospice project to provide four new homes on the existing site. One facility will be dedicated to palliative care, and the others to residential care organised by age group. When complete, the development will provide support for up to 300 families per annum. Building will begin in February, and so far she has raised €3 million, part of which has come from the Laura Lynn Children's Foundation.
"I am the mother of two boys, aged five and three, thankfully both healthy, and when I saw the work being done at the home and two to three children sleeping in one bedroom, I just felt I had to do something. I like to do things where I can see a result and I have set a date of two years to raise the funds," she says.
She has raised money both privately and from the corporate sector, and drawn funds from events such as the Brian O'Driscoll Golf Classic and the captains' annual charity night at the K Club. She launched her campaign with a lunch for 80 in Bistro One in Foxrock in February, from which she raised €100,000, and next year she plans to run an event around the Ryder Cup. "I love being busy and can manage with five or six hours sleep. I feel am there to do a job, to act, and I don't waste time."
WHAT SHE WEARS: "I like black, and I am a very casual person who likes skirts and tops. For the lunch, I wore a pair of white jeans from Brown Thomas with a Kenzo top from House of Fraser. I have not done black-tie events - I go to too many of them myself. I would be more dressed down than dressed up when I am working and have to feel comfortable, so I am not a high heels person. I hold on to ball dresses, but having lost two and half stone recently, many of them got dumped on the floor! I give away clothes to one of my cleaning ladies, or to WaWa, the women's refuge in Ranelagh, but I hang on to the good things that I like. I buy clothes at reasonable prices, and five or six good pieces every year from Missoni or Diane Von Furstenberg. I quite like fitted dresses, and don't like flounces. I like little boutiques such as Liuzzi in Dún Laoghaire, Lily in Foxrock, and Khan in Blackrock, where you get service."
ROSS GOLDEN BANNON The Rape Crisis Centre
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the centre, which has ongoing fundraising demands. An annual shortfall of €500,000 has to be made up through fundraising events, annual flag days and bucket collections. Corporate sponsorship is almost impossible to attract in this area, which means complete dependence on individual support.
In an effort to create awareness among a younger public, Ross Golden Bannon came up with the idea four years ago of the Wilde October Ball in the Berkeley Court Hotel. It is a black-tie event with an Oscar Wilde theme, featuring slow sets and dance cards. It raised €22,000 in 2001 and has become a popular annual occasion ever since. This year it was attended by 320 people and netted a record €70,000. Monies raised go towards staff salaries and the training of counsellors. Bannon has always felt it important to commit time to voluntary work. "It is important to find meaning in life beyond normal conspicuous consumption and when you decide to commit to something else you often get a lot more back from it. You learn so much about other people. There are lots of things going on in Irish society and we need to think more deeply about the society that we have created."
WHAT HE WEARS: "I nearly always wore a black 1930s dinner suit bought on the King's Road years ago, but I lost it last year. Now I normally wear a skinny dinner suit with black, slightly flared trousers. I buy a lot of stuff at "degriffe" shops in Paris, which sell last year's collections, and then I generally mix and match. Daniel Hechter jackets suit me, and you can always get something different in Zara in Madrid. People are dressing down so much these days and a lot don't wear suits to work, so when they are given an opportunity to dress up they really go for it. People coming to the ball really make a huge effort and it's loads of fun."
HELEN SEYMOUR Concern/Dublin Simon Community/Rotunda/Jack and Jill Foundation
Helen Seymour, creative director of Red Star Communications, has been the driving force behind many outstanding Irish fundraising projects in the past five years. One of the best known was the "Muc" project, from an idea by Gavin Friday, which involved a big metal piggy bank at Dublin Airport which then toured the country and raised €250,000 (60 per cent of it from schools) for Concern's Kosovo fund in 2000. Another was the Cow Parade, an international concept which she brought to Ireland and which raised €300,000 for the Jack and Jill Foundation and the Dublin Simon Community. She recently worked on a fundraising project for the Rotunda Hospital, with Christies of London, involving an auction preview in Dublin of fine and vintage jewellery being sold in London in December. "I prefer to do one thing properly rather than lots of smaller things."
WHAT SHE WEARS: "For a lunch I usually wear a black Anne Demeulemeester trouser suit, and for evening functions a Temperley dress. I also have a black floor-length dress by Maria Grachvogel and a black and white antique lace Comme des Garçons dress which is comfortable and different and always gets comments. They cost nearly €1,000 each, but I have had them for six or seven years. Temperley dresses are very pretty and make you feel like a girl, and give you an excuse to dress up. When you are on your feet all the time at these events you need to be practical as well. I don't throw clothes away, because I tend to buy good pieces that I wear a lot and that last. And I love Galliano, his clothes are high-drama."
TRACY TUCKER Chernobyl Children's Project/Red Cross
Tracy Tucker's involvement in fundraising began after she watched an Irish-made, Oscar-winning documentary called Chernobyl Heart and felt very strongly that she had to make some contribution. Ali Hewson suggested she adapt her talents as a shopkeeper and buyer for Costume, the family business, if she wanted to make a contribution. "We decided to hold a fundraising night last November called "A Helping Hand", selling Italian-made gloves for €50, and we invited all our customers. We had champagne, and I made cakes, and all the local shops donated items for a raffle. We raised €9,500 in that one night." A second glove night is planned for December 7th. After the tsunami disaster, she organised a pub quiz and raised a further €9,000, again with no costs involved. "I think you can do things if you put your mind to it and it is good for the heart as well."
WHAT SHE WEARS: "My efforts are more modest and I don't have to dress up. I wear what I feel comfortable in. Maybe it's because I shop for a living that I am not great for trawling through shops. I bought a vintage dress and jacket in Printemps in Paris recently. It's a button-through multi-coloured silk jersey, probably from the 1960s or 1970s by Leonard. I don't buy many clothes, but I keep what I really like, and give quite a lot to Oxfam. I have shoes I wore in New York, for example, and I have been home for eight years and I still can't throw them away."
SUSAN O'DWYER Irish Heart Foundation
The IHF, founded in 1966, is dedicated to the reduction of cardiovascular disease and strokes through research, education and community service. Some 70 per cent of its income has to be raised through a wide range of fundraising events, the main one being the Happy Heart Weekend, a three-day nationwide campaign which this May netted €380,000. Another campaign, Wear Red Day, aimed at the corporate sector, raised €80,000. Some €2.5 million has to be raised annually through these events, as well as from donations and bequests. Black-tie affairs include the ball held in October at the Four Seasons Hotel, Dublin, which raised €80,000, and the annual Fashion Awards lunch, which promotes young Irish talent.
O'Dwyer has spent 12 years in fundraising, 10 of them with the IHF. "People are sick of charities, fed up with them, so fundraising has got to move with the times, and we have to look for donations from areas other than the general public. You have to love what you do, because it's a hard slog and unless you have a passion for it, you are not going to be successful"
WHAT SHE WEARS: "I am very conservative, but I adore dressing up and I love truly feminine style, such as Audrey Hepburn's, or the clothes of Peter O'Brien. I try to wear different things every year. There is no clothing allowance, but I would keep my eye out and plan five months in advance what I am going to wear. I always buy something I can wear again. I am a lethal shopper; I will go out to buy potatoes and then see something in a nearby boutique and buy it. I raise vast quantities of money, but it is hard work. The glamour is just a couple of hours, but when I put on that ballgown, I feel like a million dollars. I usually go through my wardrobe and either donate clothes to charity or bring them to a second-hand shop - what I get goes into the kitty."
JOANNE BYRNE The Variety Club of Ireland
Joanne Byrne became involved with the Variety Club of Ireland while working for Ward Anderson, the company that owns most of the cinemas in the country. Her first major fundraising event was the premiere of Riverdance, which raised £180,000. Initially founded in Pittsburgh in the US after a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes was left in a cinema, the club is dedicated to helping disabled, disadvantaged and handicapped children, and was set up in Ireland in 1949. Byrne is now a member of the board, charged with attracting younger donors. "The Variety Club is different to other charities in that it raises funds and holds money and then distributes it to various projects," she explains. Last September, when Kerry McFadden won I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here, she handed over €465,000 to the Variety Club, and this was the largest single amount of money raised by any individual on any reality programme worldwide, according to Byrne. The money helped 13 Irish children's charities in different ways, from the purchase of adapted cars and Sunshine coaches for disabled children to funding playgrounds.
WHAT SHE WEARS: "If I am going to a ball, I wear Synan O'Mahony's clothes. He is a good friend, knows exactly what I want and I love the way he makes clothes - it's old-fashioned glamour. I have quite a few events to attend every week, and a ball a month on average. I firmly believe that if you take care of your clothes, they will take care of you and I always take them to the dry cleaners immediately after use. Normally I buy one or two dresses every year, and I find that even those from four years ago are as fresh today as when I first wore them. I have four sisters, so dresses go around in a cycle, but because Synan's are made to fit me, it is hard to give them to somebody else. I also have a few Lainey evening knits which are more free-flowing. They are the two designers I love."