POPE THE STARS WHO WILL ROCK CROKE PARK
Country crooners, representatives from the Travelling community, singers with disabilities, folk legends and even a few leaders of his own flock will be lining up at Croke Park to perform for His Holiness Pope Francis
SOME 77,000 tickets for Pope Francis’ twohour Festival of Families at Croke Park, Dublin, on Saturday were allocated within hours. Those lucky enough to bag one will not only get a chance to see His Holiness in the flesh, but they will also enjoy an afternoon of Irish musical offerings too.
Given that the gathering bears the official title The Gathering Of Families, it stands to reason that the musical line-up is a clutch of our best and brightest.
In addition to a star-studded bill, music lovers can also look forward to an orchestra in excess of 50 musicians along with over 700 contemporary dancers, including 500 from Irish Dance schools across the country; a 1,000 strong choir, 100 community groups, and 300 flag-bearers. Even better, according to Ruan Magan, creative directive director with Tyrone Productions which is staging the event, the Pope has ‘very much asked to sit among the people’. Far from sitting with other dignitaries on the stage, he will enjoy the musical line up among those on the pitch, albeit on a two-feet-high platform so that people can still see him. Here’s what we know so far about the eclectic soundtrack that the Pope will enjoy.
DANIEL O’DONNELL
HE’S been a housewives’ favourite with an entirely blot-free reputation, so Daniel was always going to pass muster for this show. He’s no stranger to a spiritual song, either. As a younger fellow, O’Donnell performed in the local religious choir in his native Donegal. He is something of a regular on Premier Christian Radio, while his Songs of Faith DVD, recorded at the Helix in Dublin, features hymns, and up-tempo gospel songs.
Of his extensive spiritual repertoire, he is quoted as saying: ‘I never record specifically from a Catholic point of view. I don’t look at an album and think ‘well that’s Catholic’. I mean, The Old Rugged Cross, Amazing Grace, Abide With Me — I’ve recorded all these and they are songs that would be sung in both churches. I suppose there’s some, certainly like the hymns to Our Lady, that would be very Catholic but then lots of people have recorded Ave Maria who are Protestant and Ave Maria would be considered Catholic.’
THE RIVERDANCE TROUPE
RIVERDANCE has been staged for countless presidents, world leaders and dignitaries — and even for Michelle Obama at the Gaiety in Dublin. The high-octane show has been seen by over 25 million people worldwide since its seismic debut at the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest in Cork.
HOLY FAMILY DEAF CHOIR AND THE DEAFTONES
THERE’S a very good chance you’ll have seen the young Holy Family Deaf Choir perform on the Late Late Toy Show, where their performance of Cyndi Lauper’s True Colours was a spine-tingling, viral hit. The choir, from the Holy Family School for the Deaf in Cabra, Dublin, have also performed for President Higgins and Áras an Uachtaráin where they joined forces with an older choir who came up through the school called The DeafTones.
This choir is made up of 11 deaf members aged from 13 to 39, and two hearing members. A highlight on last year’s series of Ireland’s Got Talent, they experience music in a variety of different ways, including sensing sound through vibrations and lip reading. Conductor Shirley Higgins is a teacher at the Holy Family school.
The choir began seven years ago and recently brought the two hearing members on board, because ‘we wanted to show how hearing and dear communities can mix, how they live in two worlds and how they can be the same as anyone else.’ It’s thought both choirs will accompany Nathan Carter on stage as he performs Everybody Hurts.
THE PRIESTS
A CLASSICAL trio made up of Fr Eugene O’Hagan, his brother Fr Martin O’Hagan, and Fr David Delargy, the Catholic priests have been singing together since they met in the 1970s as students at St MacNissi’s College in Antrim. While studying at Queen’s University in Belfast, the three also trained under the Belfast-based singing teacher, Frank Capper. They went on to conclude their religious training at the Irish College in Rome, where Fr Eugene took lessons from Maestro Sergio Ballani. It was here that their talent came to light, and it wasn’t long before they were invited in person by the Pope’s private secretary, Monsignor Magee to sing for Pope John Paul II in the sacred liturgy. The three are now back living in Ireland, where they juggle the life of full-time parish priests with their steadily growing musical fanbase.
CELINE BYRNE
PERFORMING in front of His Holiness is all in a day’s work for soprano Celine Byrne, who has also sung in front of Barack Obama, Queen Elizabeth II, Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict. In 2008 she took part in the first World Apostolate Congress on Mercy in Rome, and gave the first performance of a new presentation of the Divine Mercy Chaplet in the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli. Byrne was also invited to be part of the closing ceremonies and Mass of the 2012 International Eucharistic Congress in Croke Park. A devout Catholic, the Kildareborn opera star is a regular visitor to Lourdes and Medugorje and, in her words, has been ‘following God’s providential path’. Elsewhere, Celine has performed with the worldrenowned tenors José Carreras, Roberto Alagna and Joseph Calleja.
THE BEGLEY FAMILY
THERE are nine siblings in this West Kerry family, who have long boasted trad music as their stock in trade, but they’re no strangers to a spiritual moment, too. They
have performed for TunesInThe- Church.com, and have wowed crowds across Europe, the US and even Russia. Accordion supremo Brendan Begley is perhaps best known as a member of Boys of the Lough, and more recently has collaborated with Gloaming member Caoimhín O’Raghallaigh. Brother Seamus, meanwhile, is also a renowned — and hugely popular— box player.
BRIDGIE AND MISSY COLLINS
THE sisters are no strangers to appearing in illustrious venues, having performed at a celebration of Traveller ethnicity in front of the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Micheal McDonncha in 2017. Their appearance at Croke Park, in which it is expected they will provide a spoken word piece, is likely to push them further into the limelight.
PADDY MOLONEY
THE Chieftains musician performed in front of Pope John Paul II during his famous Irish visit in 1979. It was the biggest gig that the trad giants had played to date — the audience was counted at well over a million — yet Moloney recalls of the afternoon: ‘That was when we appeared with the Pope when he came to Dublin. But it was really the Pope’s gig — we were just the opening act.’ The following January in Rome at a private audience, His Holiness gave young Paddy some rosary beads that he still has at home. Paddy told Gay Byrne on The Meaning Of Life that his talent as a musician was a gift direct from God. ‘I feel that it is God-given,’ he says. ‘Where else would you get it from?’
Last year marked the 55th anniversary of the six-time Grammy-winning outfit, and what a 55 years it has been. The Chieftains were the first Western musicians to perform on the Great Wall of China, participated in Roger Waters’ The Wall performance in Berlin in 1990, and even travelled (well, their music did) with NASA astronaut Cady Coleman to the International Space Station.
PATRICK BERGIN
NOW, you may know him better as Julia Roberts’ sinister husband in Sleeping With The Enemy, or even his recent star turn in Eastenders, but the actor has recently returned to his love of music. In fact, it was this very love of music, rather than any particular desire to tread the boards, that led him leave Ireland, aged 17. His single ‘Crazy In Love’ (no, nothing to do with Beyoncé) was released earlier this year. Job done on charming the Pope and the rest of Croke Park, Bergin will return to his latest spy thriller project, Michael Flatley’s directorial debut Blackbird, which is currently in post-production.
JAMES GALWAY
INTERNATIONALLY acclaimed flautist James Galway is another highlight on the star-studded bill. Growing up in East Belfast, Galway was raised a Protestant, yet began to experiment with different religions as a teenager. ‘The only church I dare not try, of course, was Catholic,’ he wrote in his autobiography. Quite simply, my father would have killed me if he heard I had gone into a Catholic church; as for the neighbours, they would have gone out of their minds. Eventually, of course, the flute began to take over for me as a way of reaching God and from an early age I heard the voice of God in music.’