3.6million in 122 grants to benefit 1.1million children in every county in Ireland
Full list of grants available here
The lives of children across Ireland will be improved in multiple ways through 122 RT Toy Show Appeal grants announced today, which were made possible by the generosity of viewers of last November's Late Late Toy Show.
The response from Late Late Toy Show viewers to the appeal will help transform the lives of 1.1 million children, young people and their families in Ireland, with every county on the island benefitting from grants totaling 3.6million.
The RT Toy Show Appeal began in 2020,and was inspired by the story of Saoirse Ruane from Kiltullagh Co Galway, who won the hearts of the nation with her appearance on The Late Late Toy Show. Saoirse sadly passed away in March of this year, and RT Director General Kevin Backhurst today spoke of Saoirse's enduring legacy with The Toy Show Appeal.
Announcing the grants, RT Director General Kevin Bakhurst said: The RT Toy Show Appeal is one of the most important things that we do as an organisation. We are so grateful for the support of our Late Late Toy Show audience whose generosity has ensured that RT can continue to make a positive difference to the lives of thousands of children, and their families across the island, north and south. Children have always been the inspiration behind the Late Late Toy Show and have, in turn, inspired the RT Toy Show Appeal, not least, Saoirse Ruane who will be remembered as someone who made such a positive and lasting impact on us all. Her memory will live on through the RT Toy Show Appeal and the many young lives that will be transformed.
The RT Toy Show Appeal, in partnership with the Community Foundation Ireland, announced today that the following five charities are to receive transformative grants of 120,000 each.
The Offaly Traveller Movement was awarded funds to extend its unique Travelling to Wellbeing Mental Health Service' which is a Traveller specific programme to address the critical mental health needs within the Traveller community.
Crosscare was awarded a transformative grant for their innovative social supermarket' pilot aimed at addressing the root causes of food poverty in a dignified and effective way and promoting a move away from food banks that can perpetuate poverty and contribute to industry around food surplus.
Community Law & Mediation received funding for its Children and Young People's Law Service' to meet the needs and realise change for marginalised groups.
Children At Risk in Ireland CARI was awarded a transformative grant for its trauma-informed therapeutic group support for adolescents who have experienced child sexual abuse, and parent support groups for carers of adolescents who have experienced child sexual abuse.
Babor International Arts Festival for Children was granted the award to roll out a creative sensory workshop model for children with additional needs in five schools across Galway, Westmeath, and Clare, accompanied by professional development for teachers.
The remainder of the donations will be split amongst over a hundred charities across the island of Ireland by charity partner Community Foundation Ireland who manage the grant process on behalf of RT and its viewers. Among the recipient charities are organisations like AsIAm Ireland's Autism Charity, Barnardos, Barretstown, Cancer Care West and Jack and Jill Children's Foundation.
Denise Charlton, Chief Executive of Community Foundation Ireland said: Children's lives in every county are about to be transformed thanks to the huge generosity of RT Late Late Toy Show viewers and the Toy Show Appeal. Colour, excitement and joy are being introduced into so many young lives including those living with illness and disability. Protection and safety will also be provided to those living with bullying, in violent homes and facing abuse. The Community Foundation is a proud partner of RT in realising the vision of viewers to support children across Ireland.
Grants are being provided under three main areas of support:
Addressing Essential Needs to assist those children in every county who face the greatest challenges. Projects include: family support for children across Ireland at risk of food poverty, therapy and counselling for children and young people facing homelessness (Dublin), and specialist legal support for children in the care system. 650,000 has been dedicated to ensuring children are fed, warm, safe and have brilliant opportunities ahead of them.
Health and Wellbeing focuses on supporting children living with disabilities and life limiting conditions. In total, over 1.5M is being awarded this year to provide health, disability supports, mental wellbeing and therapy services. Grants include supports for children with cancer diagnosis in Cavan, palliative care supports for children in Munster and supporting those with ADHD in Belfast.
Creativity and Play will ensure the lives of marginalised and disadvantaged children are full of colour, creativity and fun. Grants include: providing access to recreational activities including surfing in Donegal and Galway, developing a neurodiversity sensory centre in Leinster, and a youth theatre for children with disabilities all across Ireland.
Local projects and organisations in every county of Ireland will receive grants to help with a diverse range of needs including meeting basic needs like food and essentials, disability supports, creativity and play and bereavement support. Over £287,000 has been awarded to 13 charities and organisations in Northern Ireland including Angel Eyes NI Services, Youthlife, Sticky Fingers Arts and Action Mental Health.
Most recent headlines
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Taking the Stage at Carnegie Hall-On a Global Scale Boston Conservatory Orchestra students reflect on their epic concert marking the 80th session of the UN Gene...
22/12/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Presidio's Neerav Shah on the Role of Its Captiva...
22/12/2025
Hitting the bullseye: Sky Sports readies itself for the biggest PDC World Darts ...
22/12/2025
Unique skillset: Bringing new directors to the world of darts at The Worlds with...
22/12/2025
Gravity Media prepares for a flight of fancy with the PDC World Darts Championsh...
22/12/2025
One hundred and eighty: Gravity Media on hitting the production bullseye at the ...
22/12/2025
The Famous Group's Jon Slusser on Fascinating Fans Through Immersive Content...
22/12/2025
ESPN's Meg Aronowitz on Continuing High-Quality Broadcasts of Collegiate Spo...
22/12/2025
ESPN Takes Data-Driven Storytelling to New Heights with MNF Playbook with Next ...
22/12/2025
For a decade, popular German podcast Fest & Flauschig has hosted an annual Chris...
22/12/2025
Paramount Scores Largest Share Increase Among Distributors as Paramount and CBS...
22/12/2025
New multi-year deal integrates Roku's data to fuel Nielsen's measurement suite
Roku gains access to Nielsen's streaming ratings, showing The Roku C...
22/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
22/12/2025
Berklee Wrapped 2025: Our Top News and Stories A look back at a year highlighted by faculty milestones, major film and television projects, Bob Dylan's ho...
22/12/2025
The works of Plato state that when humans have an experience, some level of change occurs in their brain, which is powered by memory - specifically long-term me...
22/12/2025
Partnership integrates complementary satellite data and AI analytics to enhance security, infrastructure, and environmental monitoring solutions for global cust...
22/12/2025
Workflows allow you to create a sequence of planned events which may be added to your template(s) or inserted directly into your sequential or background playli...
22/12/2025
Monday 22 December 2025
Sky extends PGA TOUR partnership until 2029, as Sky Spo...
22/12/2025
Back to All News
Global Anime Hits and New Releases Take Center Stage at Jump Festa 2026
Entertainment
22 December 2025
GlobalJapan
Link copied to clipboar...
22/12/2025
Siobh n McSweeney, Rory McIlroy, Elon Musk, Catherine Connolly, Jim Gavin, Ivan Yates and Traitor Paudie Moloney lead new characters for Callan Kicks the Year 2...
22/12/2025
Winner announced in the picturesque surroundings of Wicklow's Avondale Tower and Treetop Walk
Andrew Trimble wins the show in his first series as coach
Th...
22/12/2025
The 2025 winners have been announced today, Sunday 21 December, for Ireland's largest choral competition Choirs for Christmas hosted by RT lyric fm.
Ove...
21/12/2025
Back to All News
Legoshi and Haru's Story Reaches Its Finale: BEASTARS Fin...
21/12/2025
John Shortt named Young Sportsperson of the Year Kerry are the Team of the Year
...
20/12/2025
Atomos announced the immediate availability of a new firmware update for its Ninja TX GO and Ninja TX monitor-recorders, unlocking ProRes RAW recording from the...
20/12/2025
CJP Broadcast has completed the digitisation of the European Gymnastics tape archive, converting 328 tapes containing more than forty years of recorded material...
20/12/2025
Bitmovin, the leading provider of video streaming solutions, today announced the launch of the Stream Lab MCP Server, to give AI agents and large language model...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Barack Obama Includes Laufey on His 2025 Favorite Music List The former presidents roundup of books, music, and movies includes a song from the Berklee alums ...
20/12/2025
Study reveals a key hormonal circuit in the kidneys Scripps Research scientists identify the protein that helps kidney cells regulate renin, providing foundatio...
19/12/2025
With Playout Release 2025.4, ToolsOnAir continues to push professional playout w...
19/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Diversified's Jared Timmins on AI for Broadcast Sports and Cre...
19/12/2025
2025 SVG Summit Audio Recap: Say What?The Audio Production and Distribution Workshop at the SVG Summit 20 took on issues including speech intelligibility, Next-...
19/12/2025
Gamified fun: Channel 5 on its NFL Big Game Night ambitions with Hungry Bear Med...
19/12/2025
College Football Playoff Preview: For ESPN, Round 1 is a Fantastic Yet Familia...
19/12/2025
AWS's Jason Dvorkin on Developing Partnerships With the NBA and PGA Tour, Em...
19/12/2025
Netflix Kicks Off Packed Sports Week with Paul-Joshua Fight Before Shifting to N...
19/12/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Presidio's Nareev Shah on the Role of Its Captiva...
19/12/2025
Mounted to the pylon of an AH-1Z Viper helicopter, a Red Wolf vehicle successful...
3.6million in 122 grants to benefit 1.1million children in every county in Ireland 
