Congratulations to Paul Dawson who made it to the top of Slieve `League Donegal and enjoyed the view just as he intended. Joe, sitting beside Paul, reports:
It’s takes some serious Courage to want to Climb Sliabh League in a Wheelchair….Paul Dawson is possibly one of the most Inspirational People I know….!!The first individual in a Wheelchair ever to summit The Highest Seacliffs in Europe…&To the Team…Both Irish & Ukrainian…Your Legends…Keep Her Lit 
World
THE LAST WEEK HAS BEEN FRENETIC FOR SO MANY THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE. THE LYING IN STATE OF THE QUEEN, THE VISIT TO BELFAST BY KING CHARLES AND CAMILLA, THE CONTENTIOUS LINE UP AT HILLSBOROUGH AND A PEN THAT REFLECTED THE DISCOMFORT! MONDAY WILL BRING THE DEATH OF THE MONARCH TO A CLIMAX AND IT PROMISES TO BE A DAY TO REMEMBER. THE TELEVISION AND RADIO AND NEWSPAPER COVERAGE HAS BEEN SUPERB AND THERE MUST BE MANY EXHAUSTED JOURNALISTS AND CAMERA CREWS AROUND THE COUNTRY AS WILL BE ALL THOSE INVOLVED IN SECURITY . I’M EXHAUSTED AND I WAS ONLY WATCHING ON TELEVISION. IT WAS NICE TO BE INVITED TO NVTV FOR A PROGRAMME WITH ROBIN ELLIOTT. WE TALKED ABOUT THE QUEEN AND THE NEW KING WITH MEMORIES AND REMINISCENCES. AVAILABLE AT YouTube The Royal Roundup
• Definition of Bank Holiday and Public Holiday:
• Public holiday is a day that is declared a holiday by the government due to some cultural or historical significance.
• Bank holiday is a holiday for bank employees.
There were two waspish women on Nolan last night (5 Live) giving off that people were being forced into grieving with no shops open! Goodness, ladies, get a grip. There are 365 days in a year, this is one. Closing is not compulsory rather the wish of the owners and employees in order to be part of the most historical event we are ever likely to observe and I guess to be part of it is a real thrill. You don’t have to be a monarchist to know this. The heavens have been in favour what with the double rainbow, the shaft of sunlight on the coffin, the fireball over Northern Ireland and more important, over Scotland where the queen was happiest.
The dreadfully sad news that Kim Lenaghan had died earlier this week shocked not only her friends but her legion of listeners to her programmes on Radio Ulster. She was a ‘one off’, happy in her skin with a voice that bubbled with happiness, she had the ability to lighten lives and give a lift to the day. I’m sure she had many down times but they didn’t show to anyone but her closest. More about Kim on my page in tomorrows Irish News.
ROCK AND ROLL
‘If music be the food of love, play on.’ One of Shakespeare’s memorable lines, If that love is of music it doesn’t matter whether Instruments and orchestras, bands and ballads, soloists or choirs. Choirs are in the news, whatever they be – church, gospel, barber shop, choral, chamber or contemporary, they have a ring of joy around them. When I was 15 I was in the chorus of the Mikado with Rosemary Youth Guild and the experience has lived with me over the years. What was it? It was the excitement of meeting for rehearsals, the challenge of learning the words and music, the fun and the building of relationships and self-esteem. Mind you at 15 there was the added attraction of boys!
There’s a growing number of choirs in Northern Ireland, even during lockdown some extraordinary zoom productions drew singers from all arts and parts to perform together as one unit; but not everyone gets the chance of joining a choir, some can’t find time, some are a bit shy as they don’t think they can sing. Now there’s a unique chance to get involved in a most exciting choral event and you don’t have to read music, there are no auditions, no singing solo, just making a joyful noise onto the Lord!
A Chance To Be A Rocker
I know it was yesterday that The Rock Choir experience was in Belfast and organisers booked the whole MAC theatre building at St. Anne’s Square because, although they expected around 100 people to show interest, they had to close the books when 700 would-be singers signed up!
Saturday offered an initial free workshop situation and at the end of the day a number of embryonic choirs were ready to establish themselves, become members if they wish and welcome new enthusiasts to their ranks and so enjoy friendship rock singing for years to come. From this month there will be weekly sessions in Belfast, Bangor, Newtownards and Lisburn led by two local Rock Choir leaders, Sophie Giraudeau working in Belfast, Holywood, Jordanstown and Clare Galway leader in Belfast and Lisburn.
But Don’t Despair.
Even if you are not one of the 700 men and women taking part yesterday, you can catch up with this national organisation with a membership of 30,000 in 240 towns and cities. Choirs have appeared on The One Show, Britain’s Got Talent, This Morning, BBC Breakfast, Sky News, ITV News, Channel 5 News and many more, so great scope for Northern Ireland to make their mark by joining the world’s largest contemporary choir.
This is the brain child of Caroline Redman Lusher, herself a well known singer, gold and platinum awards, a deal with Decca/Universal and she opened both the 2018 and 2019 BBC Proms In The Park from Hyde Park. But despite her own distinguished career, 17 years ago she agreed to coach teenagers through the music element of their A Levels during the Performing Arts course at Farnham 6th Form College. It started with lunchtime sessions, teaching boys and girls to harmonise using pop songs they knew, 170 students began gaining confidence and discovering a love of singing.
Little Acorns
“Teachers found pupils grades were improving and parents said children were happier. `I began to think this might be an idea for adults so I took that model, put up posters in the local coffee shop and soon had 70 adults on the books!” And it’s grown from there. “I’ve realised the importance of these choirs. Men and women gain confidences share their problems and for many there is something to live for. We don’t know what people are going through, break ups, bereavements, empty nest syndrome, mental illnesses and sharing music with others and singing lifts the spirits and promotes friendships. We’ve been wanting to bring news of the Choir to Northern Ireland for some time but the Covid pandemic set us back, however, I am thrilled that we now have an opportunity to begin teaching the unique Rock Choir contemporary song repertoire, raise money for local charities and offer members in Northern Ireland some amazing and once-in-a-lifetime experiences.”
Members who join will be connected to the national Rock Choir, which will offer them a chance to sing with other men and women, families and teenagers from England, Scotland and Wales. All those involved learn the same song, at the weekend it was Fleetwood Mac’s Go Your Own Way, so when they come together as one choir, they’ll sing with one voice, part of the huge Rock Choir family. And there’s something to aim for, in 2023 Caroline is planning that all choirs from UK locations will meet and sing in the NEC Arena in Birmingham.
She points out that from small beginnings the Rock Choir has grown to an enormous entity. “From just me in a classroom it has grown to a staff of 120. Membership costs £100 for each of three academic terms, spring, summer and autumn, and members are in touch with the organisers via the Internet all the time to hear about plans for concerts, charity events and get-togethers.”
Organising the Northern Ireland event was something new for Caroline and her staff but she says, they had an expert cultural advisor to help, Jenny Cooke a long time supporter of music theatre here is, she says , ‘our guardian angel’.
So, we welcomed the Rock Choir Team including 80 professional musicians and performers and the leaders who will each deliver weekly rehearsals in their own local communities.
Shakespeare spoke many a true word.
More details at www.rockchoir.com / www.carolineredmanlusher.com
The Gap Year. Lyric Theatre Belfast Until Sunday 25th September 2022
Does art imitate life? Certainly the art off the playwright, the director, the actors and the members of the production team at the Lyric Theatre have brought personal stories to the stage and affected their audience in different ways. The Gap Year is billed as three women in their 60s going on an adventure of a lifetime for castles, coffee and craic and that’s the way it begins, two friends sitting on the sofa having tea and chocolate biscuits. Kate (Carol Moore) has just lost her husband and Oonagh’s (Marion O’Dwyer) husband has hooked up with a florist called Flora and wants a divorce so, they think, the best thing is to get away for a holiday together. They invite Roisin (Libby Smyth) who isn’t in top form and needs a break. Where to? A week in a nice hotel in Fermanagh? Maybe go foreign? Or, like school children, why not a gap year travelling to every county in Ireland. And so starts the adventure. The story is slow to begin and probably a bit unrealistic, setting off for Donegal with three small tents and determined to ‘clog’ their experiences. Kate tell Roisin it’s not a clog. “Yes it is, you chat and then log it. It’s a clog.” In Sligo they attend A&E where Oonagh gets her HRT patches and the nurse offers them a comfy bed for the night. Great news but there’s a catch, her father Pat has had a stroke and the three end up looking after him but big hearted as they are, they give their car to the nurse to make her life easier. And that’s where the camper van comes into the picture. In fact it was parked outside the theatre while the women were telling us their stories, stories that touched every member in the audience in one way or another. The play takes shape as each woman talks to us about their lives, the trials and tribulations of married life, of bringing up children, of loosing a loved one. Of the three, for me anyway, Kate has the strongest storyline grieving for her husband, estranged from her children, fearful of the future. But there’s something brewing with Roisin, little signs of memory loss and then there’s Oonagh, who says she was a needy child who admits she’s still needy – after all, her man has left her for a florist.
During this journey we visit the shrine at Knock, a drag club in Dublin and in a very moving scene towards the end when two doors in the landscape of Ireland open to revel New Grange, the perfect place for Kate to come to terms with the loss of her husband.
Roisin finds happiness, Oonagh finds love and Kate finds peace.
This play by Claire McMahon is very funny and full of pathos, as an actor and writer Claire has given us a play to ponder. We meet three women who spend 12 months together with barely a cross word, who support each other without question, who never get ill. Could that ever be? This is a very streamlined play, the set is simple, the back wall of the stage showing beautifully painted fields and turf bogs of the countryside of Ireland, the sky changes according to the time of day, props glide silently on castors and the camper van is a masterpiece, indicators flashing and lights glowing. Frankie McCafferty plays priest, two husbands and bar tender, Keith Singleton becomes a lover and a gay drag and Matthew Cavan, a real drag ‘artist’. Megan Tyler has six identities to master and brings the house down with her young mother and drunken nightclub ‘it’ girl.
In every case the acting is top class and the storyline intriguing and has depth, might benefit if tightened up a bit here and there but from a slow start it gathers pace and draws you in.
More details at www.lyrictheatre.co.uk
