Every December, tractor mechanic, John Houlihan, closes the doors of his garage in Co. Kilkenny, trading his oil stained boiler suit for a plush red Santa costume, before embarking on a nationwide roadshow in his homemade sleigh, to raise funds for Temple Street hospital.

Since he first started moonlighting as Father Christmas, the Urlingford native reckons he has raised over half a million euro in funds for the children’s hospital in Dublin, which has gone towards life-saving new equipment and infrastructure

A keen GAA supporter, Houlihan first adopted his iconic alter ego 20 years ago, when his local hurling club headhunted him to assume the lead role in their Santa grotto, as part of a fundraising drive for the club.

“I’m a garage mechanic by trade, and I’ve my own business for the last 50 years. I’m involved in my own local GAA club and we had a meeting one night to try and come up new ideas to raise money. Someone suggested we should have a Santa’s Grotto – great idea.

“Then the question was raised, who would be our Santa? So, one of the guys said, ‘I know a lad’, pointing at me, and that was the start of it. That was about 20 years ago,” Houlihan said.

With his uncanny likeness, helped by his capacity to grow out an enviable snow white beard, and knack for impersonation, the Father Christmas doppelganger soon realised his vocation as well as the potential to raise some much needed funds for charities in need.

After a successful first year of fundraising, the gifted mechanic and his friends took it upon themselves to build a sleigh from scratch, transforming an old car, which was donated by a dealer in the locality, into a fully functionable, road insured sleigh mobile within a month.

As a final touch, the team of eves tracked down a reindeer statue in Birmingham, England, shipping in back to Urlingford where it now serve’s as the sleigh’s very own Rudolf.

Tractor mechanic

With a fresh set of wheels at their disposal, Houlihan and his eves set about visiting schools in the area, raising thousands of euro for charity in their wake.

In 2012, Houlihan was invited to turn on the Christmas lights at Temple Street Hospital, following his decision to dedicate all his fundraising efforts towards the children’s hospital.

Since then, Houlihan’s fundraising efforts have gone from strength to strength as his sleigh mobile covers more ground around the country, visiting up to eight schools a day.

“I think that first year we collected over €10,000. We thought that was great money, which it was. The following year, things started improving, we came up with new ideas, and we collected some 20,000 euro, the year after that, 30,000, and then last year, we collected €103,000.

“We try and do five to eight schools every day, traveling all over Ireland, from Wexford to Clare, from Cork to Dublin.

“It’s no ordeal for me, I know we’re up early every morning and we’re not home until late that night, but we’re trying to collect as much as we can for Tempest Street, it all goes for specialized equipment in the hospital,” he said, with characteristic humility.

From the month of September onwards, Houlihan starts contacting schools to arrange his busy roadshow schedule ahead of the festive period.

When Houlihan is not visiting schools, he’s spending his weekend’s shaking buckets on the streets of various towns and cities in aid of the hospital.

His altruism was formally recognised in 2019 when he won Kilkenny’s Person of the Year award, after a neighbour of his nominated Houlihan for the prestigious title.

“We started out this year now on the 27th of November, the garage door was closed and it’s not open again until the new year and the farmers know that that I’m gone.

“I just try and raise as much as I can for the hospital. I’m just doing my part. I love doing it and I love kids. It gives me a break from the garage as well,” Houlihan chuckled, in full Santa spirit.

For anyone interested in making a donation to Temple Street Children’s hospital, you can do so via Houlihan’s dedicated fundraising charity page, just search ‘Santa For Temple Street – CHF 2024’ on justgiving.com.

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Watch: Tractor mechanic moonlights as Santa in aid of Temple Street