Omnibus – Amnesty and Imelda

Amnesty and Imelda IT'S MORE than a bit of a cliché to say that even in these straitened times we have a lot to be grateful for. You might even be sick of hearing it. Call me Pollyanna if you wish, but following an event on a recent Saturday in Dublin, I am very grateful to be living in this part of the world. The occasion was a ceremony in St Ann's Church, Dawson Street, to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of Amnesty International. Amnesty is the international voluntary human rights organisation which campaigns for the release of prisoners of conscience. And what are prisoners of conscience? They are defined by the first people who inspired the English lawyer Peter Benenson to establish Amnesty. He heard of two students in Portugal who had been imprisoned because in a bar they had raised a toast to Liberty. In an article in The Observer in May 1961 he asked people to write to the authorities asking for the release of these young men, and a noble international movement was born. Amnesty Ireland was set up in some time later, and branches sprang up in various parts of the country. I seem to remember that quite a few schools had branches, but how many of these are still active I don't know. Judging by the queue to get into the church, there are still plenty of supporters, and it was quite an event. There was nothing religious about it, but it vaguely followed the lessons and carols format. Five speakers, each representing a different decade, spoke on aspects of Amnesty's history and work, and the musical interludes were graced by Brian Kennedy, Eleanor Shanley, Gavin Friday, an English performance poet called Katy Tempest â€â€ and the choir of Gort Community School. What brought Gort CS into such company? They collectively wrote and performed a song, Fight for Your Rights, which brought the proceedings to a very fitting finale. Earlier, Brian Kennedy had performed You Raise Me Up, and Gavin Friday gave an electrifying, slow tempo version of the Beatles' Help, which, performed to a cello accompaniment, made the song intensely relevant to the occasion. Because help is what we can do when we support Amnesty with a donation, or get involved in one of the letter-writing campaigns. A look at the website www.amnesty.ie will give you plenty of choice in whom you decide to support. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was promulgated in 1948, and Amnesty's sole concern is ensuring that every human being is accorded those rights. Living in Ireland, where we take it for granted that we will not be locked up for voicing our opinions, or criticising the Government, it is hard to realise that there are many countries where such injustices happen all the time. Down in Gort, which became very cosmopolitan due to the influx of Brazilian families, they know how lucky they are. A group of Third Year Junior Cert students, working with their CSPE and music teacher, Yvonne Conroy, explored the concepts of human rights and personal responsibility in more detail, and came up with the song they performed in Dublin. Amnesty is working closely with schools these days, where they are seeking to embed human rights in an organic way in the structures and policies of schools. Two of the projects are Human Rights Friendly Schools and Voice Our Concern. You can find out more about them on the Amnesty Ireland website. â€Â¢ â€Â¢ â€Â¢ BACK in Dublin the following week, I was at the Imelda May concert in the O2 at which the special guests were Mary Black and ... surprise! ... Bono. He leapt on to the stage to the opening chords of the U2 hit Desire, and the ecstatic audience almost raised the roof. Fair play to this diminutive rock demigod for supporting a relative newcomer, and if you like rockabilly Imelda's your woman. She fairly belted them out, although to my ear the songs started to blend into each other after a while. The musicianship of her band was excellent, but I would have liked more variety. The stand-out numbers for me were Kentish Town Waltz, Spoonful and Big Bad Handsome Man, and the second duet with Bono, Christmas â€â€ Baby Please Come Home. The final encore was a Silent Night duet with Mary Black. I heard later that I was not the only one to find the volume too high, and the words hard to make out â€â€ the sound man should have toned it down a notch or two. Imelda was supported by Mundy, and I was glad to see young Tuam musician Sarah Lynch playing fiddle and piano in his band. â€Â¢ â€Â¢ â€Â¢ SO, in this the last column of the year, I thank all readers, especially those who occasionally make themselves known to me. It's reassuring to know you're there. I wish you all a very happy Christmas and as bright a 2012 as you would wish. â€â€ David Burke