The MBC Rebel Spirits Awards were held in Cork yesterday. These special awards recognised Cork people and companies that “did sound things” during the multiple lockdowns we experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The awards were handed out at a special ceremony (in-person!) at the Cork International Hotel. The Rebel Spirit Awards were a concept created by Mulley Communications. Blacknight sponsored the ‘A Nod Beyond Cork Category’ – which recognised people and organisations beyond Cork who did amazing things that made an impact.
The winner in the ‘A Nod Beyond Cork Category’ was:
Feed the Heroes
Feed The Heroes delivered 200,000 meals to frontline workers nationwide during the first lockdown. They delivered from Bantry to Letterkenny and raised €1.4m in the process. Cian O’Flaherty could see the daily sacrifice and toll that Covid-19 put on people working frontline jobs.
Well deserved! Congratulations! (We also talked about the nominees recently on the Blacknight Podcast).
Damien Mulley, the organiser of the Rebel Spirit Awards said:
This was a very special event, these people were such heroes and today they shared with each other what they did and why they felt it was important. We were delighted with the good feelings that were generated.
Cian O’Flaherty had this response to winning the award:
We delivered 200,000 meals to frontline workers nationwide during the first lockdown. We stretched from Bantry to Letterkenny and raised €1.4m in the process. I set it up because I had a frontliner in my own family. I could see the daily sacrifice and toll that Covid-19 put on people working frontline jobs. They gave so much that it was the least we could do to keep them going while we sat at home.
Overall, the awards paid tribute to the artists, musicians, companies, community activists, public service members and more that made hearts burst with joy when we needed it most. Cork actor and writer Tadhg Hickey MCed the event and gave the floor to nominees who told their stories of why they did what they did.
Here’s a complete list of the winners:
Local Business Community Spirit
Ciara Parsons of Telus International Ireland – Ciara donates veg grown on the Telus International campus to organisations like Penny Dinners and the Cottage Community Cafe via her bike. In total Ciara has grown and delivered about 235kg of organic food so far.
Local Business – Pivoting Category
McWilliam Sailmakers – Claire Morgan – McWilliam Sailmakers kept their premises open, and their staff, and local kids volunteered to make PPE gowns for use across hospitals, surgeries and dental clinics across the country. They made approximately 10k gowns.
Arts and Culture
Will Sliney Art Challenge – When the schools were shut, Will Sliney encouraged kids to draw and gave 1000s of kids positive feedback and encouragement via his YouTube channel.
Fundraising: Innovative or impressive fundraising 2020/2021
Bernie and Pat O’Connor – Bernie and Pat O’Connor from Bantee created a virtual fundraiser in memory of their son Rory and raised more than €38,000 for the Irish Community Air Ambulance.
Public Service Category
Denis O’Donovan – When covid hit in early 2020 Denis was volunteering for the SUAS literacy and numeracy programme in Scoil Padre Pio, Churchfield. This was stopped and students didn’t have the resources to do online lessons. Denis and friends fundraised and bought 12 tablets and 4 laptops for students. But the school itself had very outdated equipment so they fundraised and bought 14 brand new desktops and computer tablets for the school.
Community / Voluntary Orgs Category
Shine Centre for Autism (Cork) – The Shine Centre has an Early Intervention Unit that works with 18 children aged between 3 and 6 years old 5 days per week. As each child’s needs are different, they provide bespoke learning programmes for each child. They were unable to provide this service during lockdown periods so staff worked tirelessly to convert their materials (over 200 programmes) and made them available online. Each child received an individual education plan each week where their individual programmes could be accessed online. The tutors also worked directly with the parents via soon and WhatApp to support them while they worked with the children.
Rebel Thinking Category – Sponsored by AB Sales
Al Dalton – Notes to Cork – Notes to Cork – Positive messages on Cork Billboards
Al Dalton used some 200 billboard sites, dotted around the city and suburbs, to help foster community and care at a time when business from mainstream advertisers went quiet. That then morphed into handwritten positive notes for the public that were placed around the city/suburbs to be found and enjoyed when all of us were restricted to our 5km and county. Additionally, over €5000 was raised for Cork ARC Cancer Support House with the ‘Notes4CorkArc’ campaign
Communicators Category – Sponsored by Hollywood LED Letters
Joint Winners, as they did different things
Eoin English – Irish Examiner – Eoin acted as a conduit for good verified information during the lockdown. He was producing a lot of information and sharing it widely to the people of Cork. He was present on social media where he was answering questions the public had as well as finding information they were looking for. Eoin seemed to be ever-present for the past two years.
Central Statistics Office – Even with everyone working from home the Central Statistics Office was distributing factual and useful information that the public and key decision makers relied on. Included in this was the creation of the COVID-19 Information Hub where the CSO provided data and analysis under a number of topics such as Deaths and Cases, Travel and Employment/Unemployment.
Content Creators Category – sponsored by VUDINI.AI
Two Norries Podcast – The Two Norries Podcast hosted by James Leonard and Timmy Long covers themes across the social and health sphere with a particular focus on addiction, drug use, crime and recovery. This proved to be very useful content to people during lockdown. Tough issues are spoken about and explained with sensitivity and humour with the hope of reducing stigma and stereotypes.
Special award to Timmy Long
Timmy is raising money to provide educational psychology assessments that will help to identify and diagnose the needs of children who are struggling within the education system. His fundraiser is hoping to help change the course of at least some of their lives. They are starting with three schools in the Knocknaheeny area: St Marys on the Hill Primary school, Terence MacSwiney Community College and Churchfield Padre Pio Primary School.
About the Author: Jonathan Thomas
