Bloom and friends for Beslan

Luka Bloom (below)and a host of friends will take part in a fundraising gig in the Riverbank Centre on Thursday night, to help the children of Beslan in Russia.

The Beslan massacre happened when 1,200 people -- schoolchildren, their parents and teachers -- were taken hostage by terrorists in September 2004, and then many were killed when a crossfire broke out between the terrorists and police

In all, 344 civilians were killed, 186 of them children, and hundreds more wounded.

Irishman Colin Goggins has set up a fund for Beslan. Colin arranges counselling for the survivors and families of the kids. And he brings some of the kids to Ireland. He has a website called www.beslanfund.ie/ [ED NOTE: Some of the photographs on the site are quite distressing.]

Among those performing on the night, presented by Luka Bloom, are Ronan Hally; Jason Donoghue; Eithne Ni Chatháin; Sabrina Dinan; Pat Timmony; Emily Whelan; Conor Byrne; and Aoife Kelly.