A Dublin schoolteacher’s pioneer work to feature on RTE and a Youth Choir from NI in USATowers of song
RTE – A new TV documentary charts the inspirational story of how schoolchldren in a deprived Dublin suburb followed their music dreams. Donal O’Donoghue spoke to the man at the top of the class, Ron Cooney. Ron is a music teacher. He works in Alexandra College, a posh school on the southside of Dublin city, where he conducts the college’s orchestra and jazz band. But for 15 years or so he has also worked in one of Dubin’s more deprived neighbourhoods. Ballymun Lullaby, an award-winning documentary, tells of Cooney and his involvement with the Ballymun Music Programme. It chronicles how local children performed at the Helix Theatre with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and later recorded a CD of the performance. And the hour-long Ballymun Lullaby ends with a montage of those children singing of their homeplace. It’s their story and their song but it sings to us all.
http://www.rte.ie/ten/2012/0309/ballymunlullaby.html
Omagh Youth Choir’s US impact
Northern Ireland youths have big mission
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20120310/GPG04/203100450/Warren-Gerds-column-Northern-Ireland-youths-big-mission