'A bit of me wishes I was with family': Meet the people working on Christmas Day

Three people with totally different jobs chat to Jonathan deBurca Butler about how and why they won’t be taking a day off on December 25

Declan O’Donovan, animal care manager and Sean McKeown, director at Fota Wildlife Park, Cork, which will open to the public who are required to pre-book a time and date. Picture Dan Linehan

For the vast majority of us, Christmas Day is an excuse to feast with family and friends before putting the feet up, unwrapping sweets and enjoying whichever Indiana Jones caper is on the box. While we overindulge, there are others who will be out there keeping the country ticking over and putting in shifts that most would never consider.

Declan O’Donovan has worked quite a few Christmas Days since first joining Fota Island Wildlife Park in the early 1980s. The Animal Care Manager looks after a team of twenty-one and over fourteen hundred animals who know nothing about Santa Claus and have little time for the intricacies of bread sauce.