Mayo school prepare for Rocky Road Sing Song
Tomorrow (Friday, May 1) at 11 a.m. the TF Royal Hotel Castlebar will be a hive of activity as ‘The Rocky Road Sing Song’, led by Irish music icon Damien Dempsey, will take place at the venue. Primary and Secondary Schools across Mayo will take part in the gig. The event is a schools only concert as part of the ‘Song and Stories’ project that Damien Dempsey and the team at Inspiring You have been working on for a number of years. The aim of the program is to try and get young people to look into the lyrics and stories of our traditional songs and try to make the connections between our cultural and historical heritage. This schools-based gig is an attempt to bring this message in a practical and communal way to pupils across the county.
Castlebar’s Davitt College TY students will perform the iconic Irish song ‘The Fields of Athenry’ and the school has been busily preparing for this event.
Davitt College teacher Paul Ryan said:
“The Fields of Athenry’ is a song that is sung at matches and stadiums across the country and indeed around the world. But sometimes people may not really stop and think what are they actually singing about. It is a very tragic famine song and is about a family being torn apart, where a man is being shipped to a penal colony in Australia for stealing some corn to feed his starving children. Often that tragic story might be missed from the song as we sing it in an almost celebratory way. A lot of these traditional songs tell us about our history. That is the basic idea of this gig, to get people to reconnect with the stories behind these songs.”
Davitt College TY students Myles Girling-Moore, Conor McDonagh, Niamh Bennett, and Ava Cunningham are all really looking forward to tomorrow’s gig.
Myles will be singing with Damien Dempsey on stage and the Davitt College student has also been in musicals over the years.
“I have been in musicals before and have also been part of choirs over the years, which included the Birmingham Children’s Choir. I am looking forward to tomorrow’s event.”
Conor also has previous experience of school musicals, but this is the first time he will be performing at an event like this.
“The musical here at Davitt College was a big eye opener for me and becoming more involved in music down the line is something that I may consider. I was in the main cast in the school musical and that was something that I had never done before. Hopefully that experience will stand to me tomorrow.”
Niamh has also previous musical experience as she played the violin when she was younger. Leaning about traditional music and the history of the songs has been a new experience for Niamh.
“I never did that much singing, however I did play the violin when I was younger. When you understand the history of the Irish songs it makes it traditional music more enjoyable to listen to.”
Ava has grown up listening to music at home, and she enjoys singing along to different types of genres.
“My mum normally plays music in the house, and I have grown up listening to a lot of Country and Western music. A lot of my family have also played instruments. I was excited to take part in this project, and I have always enjoyed signing along to different songs. The major bonus of this project has been finding out what these songs really mean and the background to them.”
Davitt College Creative Schools Co-Ordinator Veronica Morley is proud of the students’ efforts.
“The song we have to perform is ‘The Fields of Athenry’ and we have a number of students involved in that. The whole group has grown in confidence as the weeks have progressed. The students also performed an award-winning school musical here as well, so they are no strangers to the stage.
“We have a massive history and tradition of music and creativity in the school. As Creative Schools Coordinator, I really value the importance of the creative arts in the students’ lives.”
Tickets for tomorrow's gig are for parents/guardians only and they can be purchased here.