Celtic Thunder's Byrne and Kelly Release Christmas Charity Song to Help America’s Homeless

By Nick Krewen 1/12/16 | www.samaritanmag.com

Neil Byrne and Ryan Kelly, two members of Ireland's Celtic Thunder, have written an original Christmas song called “The Gathering” with proceeds going to the National Alliance to End Homelessness in the U.S.

Byrne and Kelly became a duo after performing a live show together called "Acoustic by Candlelight" in 2012. They have since registered a Billboard world album chart No. 1 with 2013’s Acoustically Irish and have spent the last three years touring North America, Australia and Canada.

The pair’s latest album, 2016’s Echoes, hit the No. 1 spot on the iTunes World Music chart, Billboard Top 5 World Album, No. 1 Amazon Traditional Folk and No. 1 Amazon Traditional British & Folk charts, Amazon Top 100 Album, and Google Play Top World Album.

The lilting Christmas ballad “The Gathering” is available for 99 cents to $1.29 on the band’s web site and iTunes.

According to its web site, The National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH) is a nonprofit, non-partisan, organization committed to preventing and ending homelessness in the U.S.

Initially founded in 1983 as the National Citizens Committee for Food and Shelter, the NAEH works to improve policy, build capacity, and educate opinion leaders, providing data and research to policymakers  and elected officials in order to inform policy debates.

In January 2015, there were 564,708 homeless on any given night in the U.S., with 206,286 being people in families.  About eight percent  — or 47, 725 — are veterans.

           

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* Samaritanmag.com is an online magazine covering the good deeds of individuals, charities and businesses.