Photos: jbs photos Kilkenny
A recent initiative undertaken by Kilkenny musician John Travers came to fruition last week
Mr. Travers, who is synonymous with the music scene in Kilkenny for many years, arranged for ten local musicians to record their music, with all proceeds going to ‘Kilkenny Helping the homeless’.
Speaking to the Kilkenny Observer, John explained that Kilkenny is bursting at the seams with musicians and talent. He continued: “That’s just ordinary everyday people who have a talent to entertain, and we arranged to get them together, with a CD culminating as the finished product.
John has played hotels, clubs and dancehalls the length and breadth of Ireland and if anyone knows their way around the music scene then it the Fatima Place musician and entertainer.
And it was fitting that Andrew McGuinness, a former student of John was on hand to launch the CD.
Speaking at the launch, Cllr. McGuinness congratulated John Travers for his foresight in organising the project. He thanked all those who contributed to bringing the project to completion, including musicians and singers, paying a special tribute to Broderick’s recording studio and Perfecto Print for their generosity.
Andrew McGuinness, apart from being a politician, is known to strum an odd tune on the guitar and is a regular at music gigs in the city. Cllr McGuinness said that Kilkenny owes a great debt to Brendan and Mary Pierce for their amazing work with ‘Kilkenny helping the homeless’, and he was delighted that proceeds from the sale of the CD would make its way to this charity.
Brendan and Mary Pierce along with Jackie Cullen from Kilkenny Helping the Homeless were in attendance at the Home Rule Club where the CD was launched.
Mary said that Kilkenny Helping the Homeless were so appreciative to all the musicians and singers for this wonderful project. “There is only so much we as an organisation can do, and without regular contributions and assistance from volunteers our work would be much more difficult”.
Brendan Pierce announced on the night that their organisation had now achieved registered charity status from the Charity Regulator in Ireland.
Copies of the CD can be purchased at John Joe Cullen butchers on John Street or by contacting Mary Pierce.
FROM NEWPARK TO NEW YORK
An interesting point that arose at the launch was that Joan Lomonoco who lives in New York and who is a friend of Alison Kealy Hayes, already purchased the CD and is playing it for her friends in The Big Apple.
Musicians and singers featured on the CD include: Alison Kealy Hayes, Johnny Comerford, Andrew McGuinness, Martin Satelle, John Joe Cullen, Noreen Travers Murphy, Eddie (Rajah) Byrne), Gerry Cody, Claire Kilkenny, Mary Butler, and Wrong Direction.
The Kilkenny Helping the Homeless band include: Alison Kealy Hayes (guitar) Andrew McGuinness ( guitar) and John Travers (Bass/Keyboards).
If you feel you can contribute in any way to ‘Kilkenny helping the homeless’ you should contact 085 7075348.
I’ll get by with a little help from my friends
They say that a nice gesture can happen in the strangest of places.
As a nation we are a generous body as can be seen in the many contributions made by Ireland to various charitable causes.
Whether it is a national, International or a local cause, Irish people go that extra mile when it comes to offering a helping hand to those less well off.
A case in point would be the Trojan work being done by various charities in Kilkenny.
One such organisation is ‘Kilkenny Helping The Homeless’ (KHTH) headed up by the husband and wife team of Brendan and Mary Pierce.
At the launch of the charity CD for KHTH, Mary Pierce was introduced to Peter and Weronica Wero.
And as they say, one word borrowed another.
Weronica and Peter arrived in Kilkenny from Poland ten years ago and since then have started up their own cleaning company called WP4.
While Weronica deals with all matters internal of the house, husband Peter concentrates on the guttering, and window cleaning
Weronica said she was very taken by the work of the Kilkenny charity and offered to do a house carpet cleaning job, payment for which would go toward the charity. Needless to say Mary , quick as a flash ( no pun intended) accepted the offer on her web page ready for auction !
It’s true what they say. There’s nice people out there. Well done Weronica, Peter and WP4.
