Christmas market offers festive flair as choir nears €100k charity mark

A Christmas market is set to offer further festive flair for Cork city shoppers over the last two weekends before the big day.

As well as providing a chance to pick up seasonal items, gifts and plenty of local food products, the event in Emmet Place will be a hub for fundraising efforts for local charities.

A giving tree at the Festive Market will feature in the craft tent, where people can leave small gifts.

It has been organised in association with Cork Penny Dinners, which is serving more than 1,000 meals per week to people in need and which will make sure the presents go to those who will most appreciate them.

The festive spirit will be boosted by the vocal talents of a number of charity choirs. Among them is the St Luke’s Male Voice Choir, which is on course to pass the €100,000 mark in its 10th year of raising funds for Marymount Hospice.

It will be one of a number of venues where they are carolling this year. Leader Anth Kaley said at the launch of the Northside Christmas photo exhibition — featuring images from the Irish Examiner archives — at the Cork City and County Archives in Blackpool last week that they were just €6,000 short of reaching the magical milestone, with sales of their CD helping to push them closer to the target.

Also singing at the Emmet Place Festive Market — which is open Friday to Sunday for the next two weekends — will be the Surgeon Noonan Choir, medical students at UCC, who are raising funds for their voluntary work in Africa. The Voices of Cork Community Choir, which promotes tolerance, inclusion, participation and community development in the city, and other musicians and singers, will also provide entertainment.

“We have around 25 stalls, with a strong emphasis on local makers of crafts, much of it in the high-end range. So, why not take a quick break from shopping or pop in before the panto for a mulled apple juice and give a little before indulging in some of the superb fine food and gift ideas which will be on display,” said Rose-Anne Kidney of event management company Goldiefish.

On offer will be Christmas wreaths or other decorations and seasonal gifts, vintage items, jewellery, confectionery and accessories.

The market’s location near Cork Opera House will give visitors a chance to enjoy a Christmas market atmosphere near the north channel of the River Lee. A short walk away near the south channel is Glow, A Cork Christmas Celebration, which continues over the last two weekends before Christmas at the Grand Parade, and in Bishop Lucey Park, which has been transformed into Tír na Nollaig.