Give them a cause, call them to your side – and people are capable of magnificence.

There are a couple of lose ends to tie up, and there may be some additional money yet, but Sunday’s “Bid for Haiti” auction raised just over €2,500 for GOAL‘s relief work.

I’ll be honest. Ten minutes before we were due to begin the auction, the room was empty. Only a handful of people had come to the viewing, none of whom had registered. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t panicked.

But people did come, and they brought their wallets and purses with them. Many of them reaching very deeply into their pockets indeed.

I owe a huge debt of thanks to so many people who helped produce the event. I’ll do my best to list them here – in no particular order.

Organisers:

Paul O’Mahony, Marketing Write Now
Tanja Buwalda & Dee Geaney, PowerMedia
Gabrielle Morehead, Gabrielle Morehead Photography
Claire O’Rorke, Claire O’Rorke Photography
Adrian Roche
Eoin Mulligan
John D Sullivan, John D Sullivan Auctioneers
Richard O’Brien, KJ O’Brien & Co

Contributors:

Gabrielle Morehead, Photography
Claire O’Rorke, Photography
Donagh Glavin, Photography
Philip Daly,  Photography
Ted Murphy, Photography
Mike O’Toole, Photography
Giles Norman, Photography
Peter Cox, Photography
John Lotty, Photography
Calvin Jones, Photography
Donncha O Caoimh, Photography
Donal O Caoimh, Photography
Paul O’Mahony, Marketing Write Now, Photography and Poem
Miriam Barry, Paintings
Sean McCarthy, Paintings and Sculpture
Danielle Sheehy, Painting
Kevin Murphy, Photography
Paul Lynam, Photography
Katie Sullivan, Painting
Mary Payne, Painting
Ryan Whalley, Photography
Treasa Lynch, Photography
Lionel Powell, Sculptor
Kieran Frost, Photography
John Wallace, Photography
Liam Kennedy, Photography
Sheena Jolley, Photographer
Wild Goose Studio
Michael Reeves, Paintings
Martijn Kajuiter, Photography and Autographed Book

Sponsors:

Don McGee, Art and Frame – Framing
Pat Frawley, FotoFinish – Printing
Gresham Metropole Hotel – Venue

General Do-Gooders, Well-Wishers and Super People:

Sabrina Dent, Sunshine and Lollipops
John Handelaar, CorkFM
Damien Mulley
Steve Cox, Cork Marketing Partnership

Please, if you are missing from this list – my humble apologies. Do contact me.

Similarly, if you are on this list but without a link to your website, please let me know and I shall make amends.

TO EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU, A HUGE “THANK YOU”

John D Sullivan, Auctioneer, takes the bids while Paul O'Mahony introduces the lots. (c) Roger Overall 2010

The view from my seat in the studio. (c) Roger Overall 2010

I’ve never given a live radio interview before. Consequently, much of my brain was engaged in a single task: preventing myself from saying “Fxxk” on air.

I’m not really able to tell you what I said using the rest of my head, but I’m told I didn’t sound like a vegetable. So that’s good.

There had been talk of an interview to promote the Bid For Haiti auction on a local radio station for a couple of days. I wasn’t sure which one, or where I had to be, or when. All I knew was that if it were to happen I’d find out about it fairly last minute.

At 11.55 today I was pulled over in my car, blocking someone’s driveway, speaking to Paul O’Mahony, my main co-organizer on the Bid For Haiti project. Through the wonderful Sabrina Dent we had been invited on to John Handelaar‘s one-hour lunchtime talk show on CorkFM. I needed to be at the studio in under 45 minutes. The directions were … let’s say “interesting”.

Long story short, CorkFM is a fledgling radio station (87.7 on FM) with a license to broadcast on 15 consecutive weekends. After that, they’ll go for a year-long license, followed by a full 10-year broadcasting permit. And best of luck to them.

At the minute they are broadcasting from temporary space by Kilbarry House on the outskirts of Cork with equipment begged and borrowed from a range of sources. It’s the kind of place that’s round the back of somewhere, down that lane, you know the one, on the left, and through the gate with the broken pillars.

I only got lost once.

So did Paul.

I’d just like to say a big thank you to Sabrina, John and Donal (the station owner) for giving us so generously of their airtime.

You’ll also be happy to know that I didn’t say “Fxxk” on air.

But Paul did say “Bugger”.

BID FOR HAITI

Charity Auction of Paintings, Photographs, Sculptures and Writing

Sunday 14th February 2010

Metropole Hotel, MacCurtain Street, Cork

Registration and viewing from 11am

Auction starts at 3pm

All proceeds to go to GOAL’s relief work in Haiti

Online Catalogue

From left to right: John, Donal and Paul having a pre-interview chat. (c) Roger Overall 2010

CorkFM owner Donal listens to the station's broadcast before we go on in a room across the hall from the studio. At this point, nobody has sworn on air. (c) Roger Overall 2010

John Handelaar chats across the console to Paul during a song. (c) Roger Overall 2010

Artists, photographers and sculptors are donating works to be auctioned to raise money for GOAL’s relief effort in Haiti.

The auction will be held at the Gresham Metropole Hotel in Cork. Viewing of the lots and bidder registration starts at 11am. The auction itself is from 3pm onwards.

An online catalogue is starting to build up here: Bid for Haiti

Please tell everyone you know.

If you are an artist, photographer or sculptor and would like to donate a piece of art to the auction, please get in touch with me on 021 451 8000.

"North Sea" - A rare depiction of a modern ship at sea by Danish maritime artist Johannes Moeller

I do own it, however, and I love it.

It was part-payment for a job I did many, many years ago when I was a freelance PR consultant in the UK. It is both beautiful and significant, as there are very few paintings of modern ships at sea by significant artists. [UPDATE: My good friend Paul O'Mahony found this on the internet: North Sea.]

I am donating it, along with prints of my own work, to the “Bid for Haiti” auction that I am helping to organize.

Nationally- and internationally-renowned artists, photographers and sculptors will be giving original pieces to be sold at the event, which will be held on Sunday 14th February at the Gresham Metropole Hotel here in Cork. Viewing and registration will be from 11am, and the auction itself will get underway at 3pm.

This is going to be a phenomenal opportunity for bidders to acquire original works, none of which have a reserve price on them.

All the proceeds from the auction will go to GOAL‘s Haiti relief effort.

Please spread the word about the auction. Blog, twitter, facebook… anything you can do to help publicize the event would be fantastic.

And if you have a chance, please come along. There will be some wonderful things up for auction. What could be more rewarding than filling that blank space on your wall with art that helped alleviate some of the suffering in Haiti?