Love/Hate Stars & Superquinn Support St. Patrick’s Hospital

Kilmainham Superquinn held a Christmas Evening at their Heuston South Quarter store last Friday, the 13th of December, and Alan Finn and I popped along to see what all the commotion was about!

Two Love/Hate stars – Stephen O’Brien and Aaron Heffernan – turned up to welcome shoppers, and to help present a cheque for €1,844.80 to the St. Patrick’s Hospital Foundation. That was the total amount collected for the local Dublin 8 hospital, instore by Superquinn, as part of their annual ‘Ultimate Chocolate Biscuit Cake’ promotion. The extremely indulgent and tasty cakes sold for €1.99, with 80c going to St. Patricks Hospital.

Santa Claus popped along too, handing out goodie bags to local kids who turned up, and there was a dj instore. The music created an uplifting atmosphere, so much so, that Santa and the girls who were helping to welcome shoppers, really got into it, and busted plenty of moves. Christmas cheer was most certainly in the air, for the Superquinn brand’s final Christmas in Kilmainham. The stores manager, Maria McDaid, explained that it will be rebranded as Supervalue in February 2014.

There were a handful of Superquinn suppliers invited to pass out free samples of their products, and there was mulled wine being given out too, which gave us a chance to sip some vino (only a tad) and have some munchies as we strolled around the store. North County Dublin producers Keogh’s Crisps and Ballymaguire Signature Dishes both had some tasty nuggets on offer, and the Superquinn baker Lynda Hayes was showing off the store’s 2013 Christmas Cake.

It was a cheerful event, with shoppers appearing to be enjoying the festivities, but there was a serious aspect to this event too. The Love/Hate lads explained that they really admired the ongoing work of St. Patrick’s Hospital, and didn’t need to be asked twice by the store manager to support the campaign and event. Our local mental health institution operates not only the hospital and onsite services here in Dublin 8, but they also help to give people access to advice about mental health issues, that they or their loved ones may be suffering from.

The D8 hospital operates the only mental health phoneline in the Republic of Ireland that is there to specifically give advice, pointing callers to appropriate services that are available to them. All other similar phonelines may do this on occasion, but they are ‘listening’ services primarily, whereas St. Pat’s Mental Health Support & Information Line is specifically staffed by experienced Mental Health Nurses, which allows them to offer very specific and qualified advice.

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Mental Health Support & Information Line

Phone: 01 249 3333
Days/Hours of Operation: Monday-Friday 9am-5pm
Out Of Hours: Answering and call-back service available out of hours
Website: www.stpatricks.ie
Email: info@stpatsmail.com
Service Run By: St. Patrick’s Mental Health Services

TOP IMAGE: Love/Hate stars Stephen O’Brien and Aaron Heffernan. IMAGE ABOVE: The Love/Hate boys with Saoirse Ashton and Teigan O’Rourke. All images on this page are credited to Alan Finn/FRG.ie.