In a packed room in Ely House in Dublin city, hands shoot into the air as the option is given to volunteer as a table host at this year’s Christmas dinner charity event at the RDS for those in need.
A table host is one of the most sought after roles among volunteers who attend the induction day for the Christmas charity event on Sunday, December 7th.
Grace O’Dowd has been a volunteer at the Christmas dinner event, organised by the Knights of Columbanus, for 15 years despite living in London full-time.
She has held the role of a table host every year and loves it.
She explains how it sees her sit with the guests, ensure they feel welcome and included, get served their three course dinner, clear away the tables after eating and chat with them.
Meeting and talking with the guests is her favourite part of the day. “When you see their faces, up dancing and chatting, it’s great.”
She also said that understanding their circumstances and ensuring they are treated with respect and dignity are important.
“If there’s anything we can help with, we do. If there’s not, then we just ensure they have a great time before they have to go back out, usually to their hostels or temporary accommodation, or wherever they unfortunately park themselves on the street.”
Originally from Foxrock in Dublin, she currently lives in London where she works in project management at a bank.
She got involved with the Knights of Columbanus’s festive charity event when she was looking for a way “to give back.”
Two years ago she joined the organising committee of the event.
She travels to Dublin for Sunday’s volunteer induction which is mandatory and comes home on December 22nd and stays until St Stephen’s Day every year.
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Volunteers Dara Golden from Bray and Orla Conlon from Clondalkin. Photograph: Bryan Meade
On December 23rd and 24th, she will be there from morning time to 1pm or 2pm, setting up. On Christmas Day, she volunteers from 7am until 3pm or 4pm. On St Stephen’s day, she is cleaning up from 10am and flies back to London that evening.
“It’s a busy time, but I love it,” she said. In the future, she hopes to get her nieces and nephews volunteering.
This will be Orla Conlon’s third year to volunteer. Each year she has been a table host.
She loves doing it as it’s “the only time they (guests) have in the whole year that people actually sit and listen to them. You give them that time, you let them speak.”
On Christmas day, she starts at 7am, with guests arriving from 9am. She also tries to help out on preparation days of December 23rd and 24th, if she has time off from her job as a senior manager in the civil registration service.
From Clondalkin, she said volunteers are “flat out” once they start. It’s a busy day, when you’re finished, you’re shattered.”
Dara Golden from Bray, will also be volunteering for the third year.
The artist and organic gardener explained she has always liked helping people and wanted to pay a good deed forward.
Previously her role was to serve the drinks and this year she will be behind the bar.
“I actually feel that the volunteers get as much, if not more, out of it than the guests because you’re not thinking about yourself. You’re thinking about somebody else, and you’re trying to make what could be the only day out of a miserable existence a little better by treating them with dignity and respect and as human.”
“You feel like you’ve done a good thing. It’s like an echo of goodness coming back.”
She volunteers from December 23rd through to the 26th.
Trevor Macnamara has been the chair of the organising committee for the Christmas dinner event for the last three years. Photograph: Bryan Meade
Trevor Macnamara, a retired engineer from Kildare has been the chair of the organising committee for the Christmas dinner event for the last three years. He has been involved with the festive event for 12 years and with the Knights of Columbanus for 20 years.
2025 will be the event’s 101st year in operation.
He explained that preparation begins in September. On October 1st, volunteer registration opens and every year it has been oversubscribed with so many people wanting to help.
The late Br Kevin Crowley shaking hands with Pope Francis at the Capuchin Day Centre in Dublin. Photograph: Maxwell Photography/PA Wire
The induction day welcomed around 200 volunteers and a special mass was celebrated in memory of Brother Kevin Crowley, the Capuchin Brother and founder of the Capuchin Day Centre, who died in July 2025.
“He dedicated his life to helping the poor, the marginalised in the greater Dublin area.”
Joe McEvoy registering volunteers, with Zhang Mao Maguire aged 10 and Kai Zhang Maguire aged 8 from Stillorgan. Photograph: Bryan Meade
When the Capuchin Day Centre would close on Christmas day, its only day off once a year, Brother Kevin would still visit the RDS and would know nearly all of the guests, recalls Macnamara.
Volunteers will serve up to 550 guests at this year’s Christmas dinner and will prepare another 5,500 meals for volunteers of organisations such as Alone, Meals on Wheels, the Simon Community, Age Action Ireland and more to deliver to people who need them.
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