Christmas spirit: St Fin Barre's choir has no truck with Covid as it brings carols to the streets

Cathedral choir, singing since at least 1328, is bringing seasonal songs to Cork City using a mobile screen and speaker system

The choir of St Fin Barre's Cathedral in Cork have turned the tables on Covid and Omicron by bringing a carol service to the public via the latest mobile LED screen technology mounted on a truck. Picture: Larry Cummins

Never mind the boys of the NYPD choir — the members of Cork’s famous St Fin Barre's Cathedral choir are taking their uplifting and traditional carol service on a citywide tour by truck.

The truck parked outside the city’s Mercy University Hospital (MUH) yesterday and broadcast the performance via a big screen and special sound projection to staff and patients, many of whom watched from inside their hospital windows.

MUH’s operations director, Carol Hunter, said it was a welcome relief to hear carols in the air: “It’s been a very challenging year for everyone in the health service — not least those on the frontline and especially patients, who have had to endure restrictions on visits,” she said. "So we welcome anything that lifts our spirits, that adds a bit of Christmas spirit."

The choir’s annual Christmas carols performance, a highlight of Christmas in the city, was recorded at the landmark cathedral recently, in line with public health guidelines.

It can now be broadcast on a big screen from the back of a truck which will call to specific sites between now and next Tuesday.

The mobile carol service was launched last year as the country faced a winter wave of Covid. 

Amid rising concerns about the surge of Omicron, Dean of Cork, the Very Rev Nigel Dunne, said the 50% capacity restrictions would mean hundreds of people would again miss out on this year’s cathedral performance.

St Fin Barre's Cathedral director of music, Peter Stobart, assistant director, Robbie Carroll, and the Dean of Cork, the Very Rev Nigel Dunne seeing the carol-mobile truck off from the doors of the cathedral yesterday. Picture: Larry Cummins

So, using the latest mobile LED screen technology and sound projection, St Fin Barre's Cathedral will be turned “inside out” to bring the performance to the people at various locations over the coming days, including hospitals, nursing homes, and the hospice. 

"We are delighted that once again the Christmas cheer from the cathedral is shared with frontline workers and patients," he said.

It’s still not the same as gathering in the cathedral in huge numbers and all present being allowed to sing, but at least this project brings some additional Christmas cheer to the streets of our city and our front line workers in these difficult times.

He said the initiative has been made possible due to the stalwart efforts of the St Fin Barre's Quarter Development Group and the generous support of Cork City Council and additional support from the cathedral.

Chair of St Fin Barre's Quarter Development Committee, Eoin Murphy, welcomed the mobile carol service.

"The cathedral is at the heart of the historic St Fin Barre's Quarter and last year this hugely popular initiative demonstrated what a significant contribution it makes to Cork City especially at Christmas time,” he said.

For me, the carol service has always symbolised the start of Christmas and now that tradition is expanded to include many people who cannot attend the performance in the cathedral.

This programme is sponsored by Cork City Council through their Reimagine GLOW Christmas programme.