How to celebrate Nollaig na mBan safely during lockdown
Takeaway afternoon tea from the Montenotte Hotel
Each year, Focus Ireland marks Women’s Little Christmas in Cork with a charity afternoon tea event. This year the event in the River Lee Hotel cannot take place on January 6, so instead any ticket purchased in support of Focus Ireland can be used to book an afternoon tea at any time during 2021.
Focus Ireland delivers meaningful long term services to families who are in danger of or have fallen into homelessness and this year’s event is a much-welcomed boost for the hospitality industry which has been impacted by Covid-19 restrictions since March last year.
Tickets are €50 and can be purchased on Eventbrite.ie.
If you fancy indulging in some fine food for Nollaig na mBan, there are plenty of options available that can be delivered straight to your door or collected.
The Montenotte Hotel’s ‘Pure Cork Afternoon Tea’ is being offered for call and collect. It includes sweet and savoury treats and an elegant dessert selection, all on a three-tiered carryout box. It costs €55 per stand including takeaway tea and coffee and there’s enough food for two people. Call 021-453 0050 to order.
The Metropole is offering a ‘Pink Party Box’ for Women’s Little Christmas for two people, which costs €30. It includes meringues, cookies, cupcakes and more sweet treats. €5 from each purchase will be donated to cancer research and there is an option to add a bottle of prosecco for an extra €25. To order, call 021-4643700.
Illuminations with a powerful message will be visible in Dublin and online from today to mark Women’s Little Christmas. Safe Ireland, the national agency working with domestic violence services across the country, has partnered with the Herstory movement and film director Marion Bergin to launch a powerful new campaign.
Woman and Child, a one-minute film advert that depicts the shrinking world of a woman and child living with coercive control and abuse, will be shown and contrasted with a standout Herstory light show, illuminating landmark buildings like the GPO and Christchurch Cathedral with images that celebrate the archetypal hopes, diversity, strength, resilience and autonomy of women in Ireland today.
The campaign will continue for two weeks, primarily on social media so you can watch virtually from your home.
If seeing a Panto is a Nollaig na mBan tradition for you and the most important women in your life, there’s a way to continue it during lockdown. Cork Opera House’s online panto show 'Nanny Nellie’s Panto Telly' is running until Friday. It’s a magical and hilarious trip down memory lane using recorded footage of Cork Opera House pantos from the last five years.
There’s still time to set up a Zoom call if you live apart and share the joy together of shouting ‘he’s behind you!’ at your TVs for Women’s Little Christmas (homemade cocktails are optional).
Tickets available here.
The Irish Writers’ Centre is hosting a free online event tonight with Dublin writer and journalist Caelainn Hogan and poet and editor Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe who will be embracing the tradition of Nollaig na mBan by remotely 'visiting' and discussing their own work amid the landscape of women’s literature today.
As part of the event, the Irish Writers’ Centre will share viewers’ favourite female writers on social media, which can be submitted to them through Instagram or Twitter.
Register for free here.
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