Press Release | Dublin’s Wolfe Tone Square Hosts Free Festival Celebrating Family Diversity
Press Release
Dublin’s Wolfe Tone Square Hosts Free Festival Celebrating Family Diversity
Celebrate your family, celebrate all families.
Family Day Festival | Sunday 17 May 2015 | www.familyday.ie
(Dublin, Friday 8 May 2015) One Family – Ireland’s organisation for people parenting alone, sharing parenting and separating – celebrates the wonderful diversity of families in Ireland with its fifth annual Family Day Festival taking place on Sunday 17 May from 11am-5pm. Brimming over with free fun and festivities, family-friendly performances, games, workshops, story-telling and lots more, it takes place this year in the new location of Wolfe Tone Square in the heart of Dublin city centre.
Karen Kiernan, One Family CEO, comments: “Many people celebrate Mother’s Day and Father’s Day and of course these are important, but what’s different about Family Day is that it’s inclusive of all families. One Family has been working for equality for all families in Ireland since 1972. We founded Family Day, inspired by the UN International Day of Families on 15 May annually, so that all families whatever form they take have a day where they can celebrate. Family Day is for all children – whether living in a one-parent family; married family; with unmarried parents; with same sex parents; a foster family; extended family or friends; or any of the myriad family forms in society – so they can know that their family is valued and included.”
This is a landmark year for families in Ireland. With the groundbreaking, though not perfect, Children & Family Relationships Act passed and the upcoming Marriage Equality Referendum, there has been much recent media discussion about what the ‘best’ or ‘right’ kind of family is for children.
Karen responds: “We’ve worked with diverse families for over 40 years and our evidence reflects what reputable research also shows: what matters for children’s outcomes is not the form their family takes, but the quality of relationships they have at home. We created Family Day a decade ago to help raise awareness of how family diversity is a positive thing for society. We still have a lot of work to do as our Constitution does not yet acknowledge this reality, and many of the families we work with are struggling more than ever, especially now with the misguided reform of the One-Parent Family Payment being pushed through. But Family Day is one day we can all get together and have fun. We invite all families to come along to Wolfe Tone Square beside the Jervis Centre in Dublin 1 to join in the festivities, or to get together at home, to celebrate their family and all families on Sunday 17 May.”
One Family gratefully acknowledges Dublin Town and Dublin City Council for their support of Family Day 2015. Full event information is on www.familyday.ie.
TICKETS
This is an un-ticketed, free event.
LISTINGS
Sunday 17 May | Family Day Festival presented by One Family in celebration of family diversity | Family-friendly fun for all ages: magic, music, games, story-telling, arts & crafts, and lots more! | Wolfe Tone Square, beside Jervis Centre, Dublin 1 | 11am-5pm | FREE | www.familyday.ie / 01 662 9212
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About One Family
One Family was founded in 1972 as Cherish and is Ireland’s leading organisation for one-parent families and people sharing parenting or separating, offering support, information and services to all members of all one-parent families, to those sharing parenting, to those experiencing an unplanned pregnancy and to professionals working with one-parent families. Children are at the centre of One Family’s work and the organisation helps all the adults in their lives, including mums, dads, grandparents, step-parents, new partners and other siblings, offering a holistic model of specialist family support services. These services include the lo-call askonefamily national helpline on 1890 66 22 12, counselling, and provision of training courses for parents and for professionals. One Family also promotes Family Day and presents the Family Day Festival every May, an annual celebration of the diversity of families in Ireland today (www.familyday.ie). For further information, visit www.onefamily.ie.
Available for Interview
Karen Kiernan, CEO | t: 01 662 9212 or 086 850 9191
Further Information and Images
Shirley Chance, Director of Communications | t: 01 662 9212 or 087 414 8511
Photos released by Paul Sherwood on 07.05.2015.
