The group formed in autumn 2014 and since then they have been a huge part of Christmas celebrations across the county and have raised £8000 for local charities. 

This year members adapted to overcome challenges posed by current restrictions and announced that ‘Carols by Caritas’ a virtual concert will take place online. The event aims to raise funds for the Enniskillen Foodbank. 

Speaking to the Herald, Helen Hamill of Caritas said she couldn’t imagine this year going by without the choir marking Christmas. She explained that the choir had footage recorded from a few previous performances, including a Christmas concert in St Michael’s Church. 

“We had two or three full years of concert on video and others partially recorded. Had we known Covid was coming at us we would possibly have recorded more material. What we had was sitting there on my laptop and in some of it you can hear children run up church aisles, normal noises that you have with a live performance. That won’t be edited out.” 

Since announcing the virtual event Ms Hamill said there has been a massive response with people already eager to make donations. 

“A PayPal account will be launched on the night and we are hoping to keep the video online so people will be able to replay it,” she explained, going on to outline fundraising for the Foodbank seemed an obvious choice this year.

“We thought it will be a hard winter for everybody and the charity we chose to support had to be the Foodbank. It was an obvious one. I just hope now we can get bums on virtual seats.” 

The choir is practising via Zoom at the moment with members ranging in age from under 10 to mid 80s. A special edition to the online event will be a carol that the choir recorded virtually. Ms Hamill remarked that this asked people to go “way outside their comfort zone” by putting headphones in and recording themselves singing.

To tune into the virtual event visit Caritas’ Facebook page on 13 December at 7pm.