Graham’s round to raise €20k

And for the entertainment round — the quiz master himself will do the honours.

It took just one post on Facebook to sell out all 100 tables at last night’s charity pub quiz in Cork city — but when your TV show attracts upwards of 3.5m viewers, there’s no surprise in that.

By simply agreeing to host the event billed as Quizzical, Cork’s own chat show host Graham Norton raised more for Cuanlee in one night than any other charitable event hosted in aid of the domestic violence refuge throughout the year.

Michael Droney of Deep South, the pub that facilitated Quizzical, said he hoped to raise in excess of €20,000 through the €150 entry fee per table and a couple of raffles.

Pauline Dunne, director of Cuanlee, said they were “delighted and thrilled” by Graham’s good turn, brought about she said by “a friend of a friend of a friend”.

The service is under pressure, said Ms Dunne, because of the recession, and the dearth of sheltered housing, which meant women and children stayed with them longer. The service looks after around 80 women and up to 120 children each year.

Graham said he was delighted to raise the profile of a service people don’t want to talk about, or admit they’ve used, or that people they know have used.

“Even in 2014, there’s an odd stigma around domestic abuse, and so it’s good doing things like this when everything is above the parapet,” he said.