Volunteers Across Northern Ireland Provide Festive Meals and Support

While many individuals partake in family feasts on Christmas Day, a dedicated group of volunteers commits their time to ensure others do not experience isolation. Margaret Peacock, a pensioner from Coleraine, has spent the last 40 Christmases organizing a large community meal for those who would otherwise be alone on the holiday. She informed BBC News NI, “People want to be with their families at Christmas and they don’t think about people who are alone.” On December 25, her objective is to furnish “a good hot dinner, entertainment and a present for everyone.” Although some food items are donated by local businesses, the gifts, aside from a small annual subscription, are funded by Margaret, her family, and friends. She mentioned, “Last year I had to wrap 280 presents.” To ensure each guest departs “with at least three presents each,” she commences collecting gifts every January. Her Christmas gatherings were inspired by her beloved uncle Jimmy, who became a paternal figure after she lost her parents. She added, “Uncle Jimmy took over from my parents,” explaining that even in her late teens, she still required support from a loving older relative. Jimmy, who was unmarried and lived alone, passed away 40 years ago. In homage to the kind-hearted bachelor, she arranged a festive feast for individuals who had no one to celebrate with. She recalled, “We begged and borrowed the first year.” She also stated, “We stayed up all night that Christmas Eve cooking turkeys and hams.” This year, she is scheduled to host approximately 70 people at Rathain Fold for a full day of celebrations. Her team begins cooking before dawn and greets guests around noon with tea, coffee, and biscuits. A substantial four-course lunch is served an hour later, with meats contributed by the Quays restaurant, Portrush. Margaret laughed, “Last year, there were five different dessert choices, and some of them had the whole five.” Live entertainment and bingo are followed by a “high tea” of home baking and Christmas pie in the late afternoon, before Santa arrives with individual presents. She concluded, “That’s the end of the evening, and then the hard cleaning and work begins.” Margaret is appreciative that her niece and other volunteers assist her in continuing the celebrations. Suffering from fibromyalgia and diabetes, she also requires a knee operation, which she has been “putting off to January” due to her demanding schedule. Her decades of voluntary work, encompassing both Christmas events and her role as a director of Fibromyalgia Support Northern Ireland, have garnered recognition at high levels. In 2022, she received an invitation to King Charles’ coronation, which she initially believed to be a scam. She laughed, “I put the phone down on the man,” adding that Buckingham Palace subsequently called back to confirm its authenticity. Last year, Margaret was presented with an award from then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who remarked that her efforts to unite people “embodies the true spirit of the festive period.” In Newry, Indian restaurant owner Gaurav Barot, along with his wife and children, will be providing complimentary food to anyone in need of a hot meal on Christmas Day. He stated, “We want to give back to the community,” and added, “We got good local support when we opened and we were welcomed really well in town.” His restaurant began trading in August 2023, but two months later, it narrowly avoided significant damage from the Halloween floods that impacted much of central Newry. Gaurav considered himself fortunate as he only had to close for two days, and he was “100%” impressed by how local people supported the flood-affected traders. This experience motivated him to offer free takeaways last Christmas, and he will repeat the gesture this year, serving approximately 100 meals from noon onwards. He explained, “A lot of people are struggling with money and we want to help out.” He intends to close at 16:00 GMT to return home for a traditional Christmas celebration with his extended family. He clarified, “My wife is originally from Newry.” He further explained, “I’m Hindu but my wife is Catholic and our kids are growing up in a mixed religion – Hindu and Catholic.” He added, “My wife has a big family here… so we get together once we finish here and then we have a meal – her family join us as well.” In County Fermanagh, cafe manager Glenn Johnson sought permission from his wife and children before he began inviting people to share their family Christmases nine years ago. He recalled, “At that time my youngest was 12 and my other two children were 14 and 16.” He stated, “I had to ask them first because it affects them too, and they were happy to go for it.” The family now dedicates every Christmas Day to serving a community dinner in Ardess Parish Church hall in Kesh. Mr Johnson said, “Our minister at the time was very much into ‘everybody has something to give’.” He continued, “And I suppose, I can cook, I can’t really do much else. So I thought: ‘How could I use my cooking skills to help the church?'” This Christmas, they anticipate approximately 30 guests, many of whom attend annually. Glenn noted, “There are people there for different reasons. Some people are on their own, some are couples on their own, their family is away in Australia or somewhere like that.” Originally, he viewed the event as “a life lesson for our children, to set them on a good path to help others.” However, his entire family now genuinely looks forward to the dinner and the opportunity to “catch-up” with old friends. Glenn added, “They enjoy it, they love the banter and the chat.” He concluded, “I think if we didn’t do it now people would be disappointed – and we’d be disappointed.”