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St Mary’s Collegiate Church Community Fundraiser Gig
7 comments | 
Sunday, May 30th 2010 at 8pm Emmet Place, Youghal, Co. Cork
Concerts at the beautiful 13th Century, St Mary’s Collegiate Church, Emmet Place, Youghal, have become very popular in the last few months with artists such as Mick Flannery, Kila and Declan O’Rourke to mention a few, performing there and these concerts have been greatly supported by the people of Youghal and the surrounding areas. Pic: Youghalonline.com
St. Mary's Collegiate Church Youghal
Slowly but surely we have been upgrading this beautiful ancient church with the addition of cushions in the pews, replacing old carpets and replacing the plastic partition in the chancel with a beautiful blue velvet curtain. The Church unfortunately doesn’t receive any funding whatsoever, therefore we rely totally on donations and income from the rental of the church. Only recently grant aid has been approved for the acquisition of a mobile stage and the three extra doors in the building are currently being repaired and will be open in the next week or so making concerts safer in the event of a fire.
In an attempt to continually improve the comfort of concert goers, we plan to install a heating system as it can be extremely cold during the winter months. A fundraising concert will be held on Sunday May 30th in the Church to raise funds towards the installation of said system.
Participation from community groups and individuals at this event has been so great that there will be 17 acts performing on the night from children’s dance groups to church choirs, from theatre groups to Michael Jackson impersonators to individual solo singers. Acts include Harmony, Youghal Choral Society, Chatterbox Dance Studio, Colin Lee, Terri McCarthy, The Blackwater Academy of Performing Arts and many many more great local singers and dancers.
It promises to be a great family evening out with a vast array of live performers in this beautiful setting.
Tickets on the door for only €10.
Parking available at the rear exit of the church on Raheen Road, at Fairfield car-park (next to Berties Pub) or behind Super Valu. No parking allowed in the grounds of the church.
Please come along and support our rich local heritage.
For further information call 083 360 6507.
7 comments |
On a recent visit to the sacredroots web site I read a statement which said a letter to sacred roots was received from Youghal Town Council withdrawing with immediate effect any further concerts, without any explanation How then can there be a fund raiser for same? Perhaps a representative from the council can clarify the situation. Thanks, Michael D.
This is typical Youghal. As Michael D said, how can the outstanding Sacred Roots project which brought great music talent to Youghal be stopped from performing at the same venue? The real question is who is making the decision and why is there no transparency on the issue? i don’t know who had the brass neck to write the above press release talking about what great acts have been performing at the church when that was down to Bobby Lee’s trojan efforts. Now, the same person is being denied to continue holding events while others steal his limelight. Furthermore, does the council, with its assumptions and presumptions to make decisions without recognition of what the public actually wants, have the right to stop gigs at the church in the belief that they own the church – they don’t, the church belongs to the people, in fact, the council is there to serve the people not to condescend and hold back information. Let it be known that there is great disquiet about the treatment of Bobby Lee and it has not gone unnoticed that the opening paragraph of this press release totally ignores his part in the success of the church as a revived music venue. Small town politics usually ends up with someone being hung out to dry in public.
Where do the individual Youghal councillors sit with this issue and do any/all of them have the ability/courage to state in public what the whole truth is in relation to what Truth77 has stated? It does not serve the town, its people, the church, and our visitors well to have this drag on. So come on Youghal Council, let the public know. Michael D
I think its sad to see this reaction to whats going on, I thought concerts could not be run in the church due to health and safety issues. This is understandable in this day and age but for the life of me I cannot understand why concerts were stopped if its still ok to hold a fundraising event in the same venue they are trying to address the safety issues in.
It makes sense to run concerts to raise funds to reopen the church to the general public and allow everyone share in the fantastic atmosphere that is found in the church. But if its safe to run the fundraiser why shut the person who started the whole thing in the first place out.
I think that Mr Bobby Lee, (no relation to myself) managed to make the concerts work because of many things,
1, His work with the younger people providing a safe haven and a goal in these events for them to get involved
2. His involvement in the music business where many of the acts are known to him on a personal level.
3. His complete lack of greed, his own desire to share and give something back. Musicians, Singers, and the crowds of people that support his events and concerts respond to this.
4. His ability to entertain and run concerts that people wish to attend at a price they can afford.
I think its a big mistake to exclude or even ignore his unstinting hard work and to force him move venue because of some politically minded people who want to take control of things. The council should help people like Mr Lee and not put stumbling blocks in his way. For far too long they had the running of venues like the church and the mall arts center which are empty most of the time and underused or else filled with acts or events that the general public do not want. The minute someone starts to make things happen they want to take the credit themselves
I see now that the next concert Mr Lee is running is in Youghals International Spanish School Church. I for one will be supporting him in this event and I will not be attending the fundraising event the town council are running in St Marys church.
On a final note I am saddened to see some of the musicians listed in the poster above, I would have thought they would have supported Mr Lee after all he has done for live music in this town. If they had any sense of fair play they would not be offering their services to the council for free.
Youghal town Council should be ashamed of themselves yet again they show a complete lack of respect for something that works and entertains people,
If you look back at Dancing thru the ages they ended up moving a very successful string of concerts that brought people to Youghal to Cork to facilitate another group of musicians who already have their own venue in town paid for by the public.
Everything I have said is my own personal opinion based on what I deem to be common knowledge
and if it offends I am sorry, its just how I feel.
Jenny, while I agree with many of the statements you have made, I think it is only fair to await the response(s) from the council to give everyone a chance to have a balanced view of this situation. Do you know if the council are on holidays at the moment? Michael
With all due respect, Michael D, there is no such thing as attaining a balanced view from what will be the usual political pap spun out of the Mall House. You can predict what will be said – The Collegiate Church needed to be upgraded and the Council are in the process of doing that, once it’s done, Bobby Lee or Tom, Dick and Harry will be welcome to use the Church for events. Everyone will have their turn and equity will be the name of the game. Translated, it means the Council have taken control of a venue that was previously ignored by them. Once they realised that the Sacred Roots gigs were drawing a crowd away from the Mall Arts Centre they put a stop to it. In other words, they saw the cash cow was grazing in the wrong field, what they believe to be their cash cow on their own patch being milked by Sacred Roots.
This is what is going on:
2.5 million for the Arts Centre = Very little art activity, crap venue. However, easy money for the Council, just collect the rent when events are put on. However, without an events organisor, it’s a pain for the Council to run.
Meanwhile, Sacred Roots (Bobby Lee) has the brilliant idea, and contacts with big name artists, to hold gigs in St. Mary’s. = No money for the Council.
Alarm Bells instead of church bells start ringing. Competition is now the name of the game.
Solution: get rid of Sacred Roots, ride in on the back of the reputation that has built up and collect the cash.
I see that several days have passed almost a week and I for one have not heard anything from the Youghal Town Council or the people running the fundraising gig in the church. Has anyone else heard anything?
The so called press release was as expected just a typical way of dealing with things, the Irish way of course, tell everyone that you will have an answer later and say nothing in the hope they forget about it all and that way we can run our little fundraising event and by the time people notice we didnt release the press statement or press release etc it will be over and done with.
It still has not answered any of the questions raised why cant Mr Bobby Lee and the members of the Youth Project run gigs in the church.
Irish politics no matter how far up or down the ladder are alive and well and continuing to treat the people who elect them (in the case of public representitive’s) like fools and in the case of civil servents well they pretty much feel they can do as they wish and not be answerable to anyone anyway.
Again this is my personal opinion and it will be a long time before I support any of the events in the church being run by the town hall or its representative, Shame on you all…..