Yorkhill Charity Night 2008

YORKHILL CHARITY NIGHT 2008

Scots usually don’t need any reason to have a party or a ceilidh, but in the community halls of Maryhill there were two good reasons. The first being the celebration of the Old Celtic New Year on January 12th, which was the original day of celebration before the old Gregorian calendar was adopted in Scotland in 1600, a 152 years before England in 1752 . The second and more serious was the fact that all proceeds from the evening were going to Yorkhill Hospital and the unit for the terminally ill kids.

The night began with a short speech by John MacNeil from Yorkhill who gave the audience an insight into why the money was being raised and where it was being donated to. John gave an interesting but brief heartfelt history of how the ward for the terminally kids had originated. By the time John had finished everyone had a better understanding of the seriousness of how raising funds for Yorkhill was.

The entertainment for the evening commenced with Ted Christopher and the Bannockburn Band, the band consisting of Ted Christopher on guitar, Gregor Lowrey on accordion and Robbie Sherman on Drums. Outstanding as ever the band played a range of traditional singing and dancing songs and tunes, which put all through their paces on the dance floor.

Although playing for a minimal fee the band played for the best part of 3 ½ hours, which undoubtedly gets the utmost respect from Crann Tara and everyone who was there on the night.

In addition to Ted and the Bannockburn Band, we were entertained by solo piper Duncan Brown, giving his service for the sake of charity. Duncan played a medley of fine Scottish tunes to the enjoyment of the crowd.

To boost proceeds from ticket sales a raffle was held, sometimes it can be a struggle to get enough prizes to fulfil a raffle, but donations were in no shortage at

Maryhill. With the generosity of many individuals and companies we had over 30 quality prizes to give away. So on behalf of Crann Tara we cannot but thank those enough who donated to the night.

As John MacNeil had stated at the beginning of the night, ‘Yorkhill depends on the efforts of and generosity of ordinary folk for raising funds’. Despite the credit crunch and lower ticket sales from the previous year ordinary folk turned into special folk on the night by digging deep in their pockets to give generously, which constituted in the raising of a total of £824 after expenses from the night.


Let the fun begin!!	First dance of the night.

Dashing White Sergeant coming up!!	C'mon now keep up!!

Me and big Duogald.	Andy frightens Aldo!!

Get a room Grant!!	The party's in full swing now!!

Duncan giiving us a blast of the pipes.	A few more revellers enjoying themselves.

Some lassies from up north!!	Ziggy wae ma burd!!

A handsome couple!!	Dancing the night away to Ted and the band.

Everybody enjoyed themselves.	Some more happy faces.

Gaun yersel ladies!!	John MacNell with Gary and Jim from Crann Tar

David and Elma.	Kevin getting frisky!!

David and Christine.	Should Auld Aquaintance.................

Be Forgot................	Ted and the boys take a very worthwhile bow, well done lads!!

We'd like to thank Jim Singer from Crann Tara for a great report on this worthwhile event.