The Dublin Airport Fire and Rescue service has released a catchy new rock n' roll Christmas song with a music video in aid of three charities.
The members formed a band called The Cylinders, and this year's Christmas inspired song 'It Won't Be Long' has been released to raise much needed funds for charity. Speaking to Dublin Live, Eric Flanagan who is a member of The Cylinders and works at the airport's fire station, explained that this is their second year in a row and they recorded the music video at the airport fire station.
Eric said: "As far as I know we're the only fire station in the world to record an original song and release it, and then do a video for charity. This was all written by myself and the lads in The Cylinders, that's the name of the fire station band, so we are very lucky.
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"It's three charities this year...all of the three thousand staff nominate the charities each year and this year it's St Francis Hospice, The Mater Foundation and Feed Our Homeless," explained Eric.
Members of the National Ambulance Service, An Garda Siochana and Health Care services also took part in the project, with backing vocals were provided by the Cinders. Eric Flanagan described how last year they were taken by surprise when they raised over €8,000 with their Christmas song.
He said: "Last year I don't think we realised how well we did, it all happened very quickly and we got up to about €8,250 in about two weeks and we got a lot of radio time and news clippings." But this year they are finding it "slower all round" to get donations due to the cost of living crisis and energy bills affecting people.
Eric said: "If we get €5,000 we'd be very happy this year. It's cost of living, energy stuff, people are watching their pennies. Last year we were all locked down people and didn't have that hike in price that everyone has now, so this year our charity drive is very different.
"We're asking people to dig deep into their pockets and give us any change they have, we'd be very happy with that." Eric explained that all the lads work shifts and filmed the video on their day off, with help from Directing Media who provided their services for free.
Anyone who wishes to donate to the charity drive can click visit their GoFundMe page here and the full video for 'It Won't Be Long' is up on YouTube.
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