John and Francis Brennan to launch their Penny Dinners make-over

Celebrity hoteliers John and Francis Brennan are to unveil a Christmas cracker for the Cork Penny Dinners soup kitchen today.

For the last five weeks, the Kenmare hoteliers have been overseeing the makeover of one of the country’s oldest soup kitchens, on Little Hanover St, Cork, as part of their At Your Service Christmas special.

The show will be screened on RTÉ on Christmas Day.

The soup kitchen, which was founded by the Quakers during the Famine and which serves up to 1,800 hot meals a week, relocated during the revamp.

Spokeswoman Catriona Twomey said the progress has been kept under wraps to ensure the big reveal, today, is a surprise for the charity’s volunteers and clients.

However, it is understood that the old, cramped kitchen has been torn out and replaced with a state-of-the-art industrial one, complete with top-of-the-range cooking and storage facilities, a new roof has been built, new windows installed, new floors laid, and the dining area has been spruced up.

Project manager Charles Glavin of Blarney Windows, said the building has also been insulated.

“This has been a huge community effort,” he said.

“It’s been overwhelming, really,” said Ms Twomey. “Tradesmen came from everywhere, everybody gave their labour for free, and they’ve been working round the clock to get it ready on time.

“It will just make the whole place more welcoming, more inviting.”

The charity is now gearing up for one of its busiest periods. It expects to distribute up to 800 festive food hampers to the needy over the coming weeks, and to serve up to 150 dinners on Christmas Day.

Meanwhile, Francis Brennan has launched the Irish Examiner/Evening Echo 2016 calendar. A donation from the sales will be made to Cork Penny Dinners.

The calendar, priced at €10, features iconic pictures of Cork City from the newspapers’ archives, alongside present-day shots of the same spots.

It is available online at eveningecho.ie/photos, irishexaminer.com/photos and at the Irish Examiner/Evening Echo city centre sales Office at 80 Oliver Plunkett St, Cork City.