Singer Niall Horan has pledged €100,000 to the Health Service Executive for mobile devices for older people and staff in long-term residential care after he saw the positive effect on his own granny during cocooning due to Covid-19.
Speaking to Apple Music's Beats 1 with Zane Lowe in April, the Slow Hands singer said: "I'm fine on my own, obviously calling people and just seeing how everyone is, people that I haven't spoken to in a while, checking in at home."
Asked who was on his call list, he said: "The family, the parents, my grandmother, have got my 89-year-old grandmother using FaceTime which is impressive..."
He said, "So many elderly people are feeling vulnerable and isolated now more than ever.
"Thousands of families have needed to be pulled apart, including my own.
"Not only does this initiative bring them back together, face to face in the short term, it's a positive development for the future too."
Horan has also said that his granny Margaret Nolan is the inspiration behind his work with charity ALONE, which focuses on isolated elderly people in Ireland.
Speaking on The Late Late Show in May he said, "We might complain about not being able to go to a football game or a pub but these people are inside their houses anyway but now they can't even go to their local shop, going to meet their friends at the post office, like my granny literally would go up the village and do bits and pieces, or go to retirement groups or whatever.
"I was thinking of her and she’s been alone for a long time and she’s fine with that but there are other people who are not.
"You hear conversations about elderly people being alone at Christmas but imagine including all of this too. I’m doing other stuff outside of ALONE but they are doing a great job."
Horan's pledge of support is one of many that the HSE has received to support its services during the current pandemic.
On the pledge for mobile devices, HSE CEO Paul Reid said: "I've been using video apps to keep in touch with my granddaughter so I know first-hand the impact Niall's generous offer will have.
"Niall's contribution is also special as it will be used long after we emerge from Covid-19".
