This article is from page 13 of the 2013-09-03 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 13 JPG
TRADITIONAL Irish music could have a marked benefit for the children and adults who have been institutionalised as a result of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
Ennistymon based charity, the Burren Chernobyl Projects (BCP) is looking for traditional musicians, singers and dancers to travel to Belarus later this year. The musicians will firstly play alongside some local musicians before visiting the organisations orphanages and playing for people in the children and adults.
“We are looking for a group to travel to Belarus for a week in the middle or the end of November. Firstly there will be a series of workshops with Belorussian musicians and then the most important element is to get them in the orphanages to play,” said Brian O’Sullivan of the Burren Chernobyl Project.
“Music is something that we feel is important to our work with in the orphanages. There is always music on in the background and we are hoping that getting the musicians in the orphanages, engaging with the residents, would be very beneficial for the residents.
“The Burren Chernobyl Project is involved in a lot of settings at the moment and the hope would be to get the group to visit as many of these places as is possible.”
The BCP is hoping to put together a group including traditional musicians, singers and dancers to travel to Belarus.
“We are keen to keep it as varied as possible, we would prefer it wasn’t all musicians or all dancers. Of course, being from Clare, we would be very keen to have some Clare musicians travelling with us,” continued Brian.
“The musicians would be brought over on the same terms as any of our normal volunteers – the only difference is that they would have a slightly different focus during their week in Belarus. I think this is definitely something that we could come back to again and again and maybe this could develop into an ongoing musical volunteer trip to Belarus.”
Anyone musicians, dancers or singers who would like to volunteer can email medical@burrenchernobyl.ie or call 087 7874609.