This article is from page 6 of the 2012-02-14 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
A SPECIAL concert to help save the life of an 11-month-old baby who needs a life-saving operation in America will take place in Ennistymon’s Teach Ceoil this Sunday afternoon, February 19.
Baby Sergio O’Connor was born on March 5 last with a rare condition which prevents him from eating, drinking or swallowing. Sergio, who is half of a set of twin boys, has only left hospital on two occasions since he was born, one being Christmas Day which he was able to spend with his family and twin brother Tadhg.
Sergio and Tadhg were born into one of Ennistymon’s best loved traditional music families, with his father Donal, his grandmother Ann O’Connor (nee Dillon) and his uncle, the former TG4 Young Musician of the Year, Liam O’Connor, all taking part in countless comhaltas sessions over the year.
While Sergio’s family are now based in Dublin, they still retain the original family home on Church Street in Ennistymon, where they spent much of their summers before Sergio was born.
“The little boy has only had two short trips out of the hospital since he was born. He got out for a few hours on Christmas Day but they had to take all of the gear with them from the hospital – he is dependent on equipment to breathe and be fed at this point,” said local comhaltas member Joe Rynne.
“Everyone who is performing at the concert is doing so free of charge and they have been really great to offer their services for the day. We do sessions in Ennistymon during the summer and we put on a great show.
“As well as the music, we will have a good lot of comedy on Sunday – we will have seanf hocail, storytellers, dancers, singers and loads and loads of musicians. We will have a lot of local talent but, as well as that, we will some people travelling from Galway and other places for it. So it should be a great show.
“The O’Connor’s have been part of the sessions in Ennistymon for years and years. Even before they got the building in Ennistymon, going back maybe 30 years or more, they used to attend sessions that we hosted out in a café in Lahinch. They would have been playing at the sessions and, when they were very small, they would even have been dancing ‘The Siege of Ennis’ and taking part in everything.”
A number of other fundraising events have taken place, both locally and in Dublin, in an effort to raise money for baby Sergio’s operation.
A bag-packing event took place in Fitzpatrick’s SuperValu in Ennistymon last weekend, while another fundraising event took place in Willie Daly’s Pub in Ennistymon the January.
Tickets are available at the door on the night for € 10.