Generous UDC

John Burke-O'Leary accepts the Amenity Grant from the Chairman of the UDC, Paddy Kavanagh and responds with a pretty speech of thanks.

I am having some difficulty with my machinery so I have no photograph to illustrate the story this week. I should have some in a day or two and will add them then. On Monday night, your Chairman John Burke-O'Leary, Treasurer Bernie Kennedy and yours truly as PRO attended the annual presentation of Community Group Grants to collect the generous grant made to the Choir for their work in the Community. Padraig O'Gorman, the Town Clerk, introduced Council Chairman Paddy Kavanagh who made the presentation in the '98 Centre. We took our place for the first time with many other worthy organisations such as Tidy Towns Committee, the Brownies, Hope, Cycling Club, to name just a few.. We are very gratefull to the UDC for this grant and, as our chairman made clear, we are always available for Civic events if a song is required. We also met Coun. Sean Og Doyle who has always supported the Choir thru' the County Community Grants and had the opportunity to thanks him personally for his interest. John, Hon Treasurer Bernie Flanagan ( I always think of you as Kennedy) ,Chairman Paddy Kavanagh, Town Clerk Padraig O'Gorman at the presentation in the "98 Centre

After the Presentation, like good hard working bureaucrats, we returned to the Choir and managed to take part in the second half of the practice.
Such dedication !

Slipping !

Apologies to my faithfull reader for the gap in posting. I just didn't have the energy after the last couple of sectional rehearsals. We are getting steamed up yet again for Arklow and the pressure is coming on. T 4 2 and Deeeep Reeever for the open competition and 2 Madrigals for the A team. There has been some comment about the Benet Madrigal "Weep O mine eyes". People wonder when or where such a song would have been sung, it being so dirge like. Research has shown that all madrigals are about sex. That, in fact, was their attraction and what made them so appealing to the popsters of the day. This is more easily understood when you realise that the only alternative to Madrigals was Sacred Music.
So I was somewhat surprised to find out that "Weep O" is one of the very few NOT about sex. Not even by the longest of allegorical longshots. I tried , dammit, but failed. It is, in fact, about an outbreak of Infectious Conjuctivitis which occurred about 1598 in London. Many of the composer's friends were affected and he wrote the piece to raise their spirits. And I hope this does the same for you.