SUPERMARKET chain Waitrose has offered a helping hand to a district choir.

Hart Male Voice Choir was the beneficiary of £1,000 from the Waitrose ‘Music Matters’ Fund, which supports charitable community music activities.

On July 20, while rehearsing at the Cross Barn in Odiham, the cheque was presented to choir chairman Eamonn O’Rourke by Waitrose staff members Sarah Mantell and Rosemary Brookes from its Yateley branch.

The award was in recognition of the choir’s many years of charity concerts and activities “supporting young singers” in the Hampshire region.

Mr O’Rourke and the choir expressed their thanks to the two staff members with a toast to Waitrose and a performance of a number of songs.

The award from the supermarket was dubbed as a “welcome contribution to the running costs of the choir, which is a non-profit making organisation".

The latest news comes after a successful summer concert tour in Ireland.

The “emotional” tour saw the choir perform at a “selection of special Irish locations”, starting with a performance at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin where “the choir’s resounding recital of both sacred and secular songs were enhanced by the wonderful acoustics of this historic 800 years old cathedral”.

The performance was an especially special moment for the the group’s tenor, John Wise, and his son, Dan, who captured the choir’s and the cathedral visitors’ hearts as they were treated to a father-and-son duet of the popular hymn Panis Angelicus.

For Male Voice Choir chairman Mr O’Rourke, the Irish concert tour included a wonderfully nostalgic return to his childhood home in County Offaly.

The choir was performing at Tullamore Court Hotel in Offaly in the heart of the Irish countryside, where members were joined by Letterkenny Senior Accordion Band for a joint concert in aid of the Irish Kidney Association charity.

David Bowden-Smith of the choir said: “There was a spontaneous standing ovation from the audience of more than 400 and it seemed there was not a dry eye in the house, for this very Irish evening, which included impromptu dancing in the aisles!

“The success of this charity event was confirmed by the €6,000 raised for the Offaly branch of the Irish Kidney Association.”

The final concert of the tour, by contrast to the others was performed at a cathedral in miniature at Kylemore Abbey located over on the west coast of the country in Connemara in the county of Galway.