Charities to benefit from fundraising CD

TALENTED banjo and melodeon player Mary Shannon has brought out a compilation CD to raise funds for two worthy causes, the Clare Crusaders Clinic and The Williams Syndrome Association.

Réiltín was released this week and includes 16 tracks featuring a host of top-class traditional musicians and singers, all of whom are friends of Mary’s and musicians she played with over the years.
The musicians who volunteered to help with the CD are Mary Shannon, Don Stiffe, Dermot Byrne, Floriane Blancke, Orlaith Keane, Colette O’Leary, Sharon Shannon, Mike McGoldrick, Dezi Donnolly, Jim Murray, Seamus Begley, The Bumblebees, Mirella Murray and Tóla Custy, Mary Staunton, Liz and Yvonne Kane, Matt Keane, Garry Shannon, Michael John Melia and Laoise Kelly.
The tunes include The Cauldron by Mary Shannon, Bhán Óig by Seamus Begley and Jim Murray, Bright Early Mornings with Mary Staunton, Lon Dubh with Laoise Kelly and Coilin Phadraic Sheamais with Michael John Melia.
All proceeds from the CD will go toward the two causes. The Clare Crusaders Clinic, located in Barefield, is a registered charity dedicated to the provision of services to children with special needs in Clare.
The Williams Syndrome Association is a small association, which supports Williams Syndrome patients. It is a rare genetic condition that is estimated to occur in 1 in 20,000 births. It is caused by the deletion of some genetic material from chromosome 7 and causes medical and developmental problems of varying degrees. The William Syndrome Association is a small association, which relies completely on fundraising and donations to support its members.
Mary came up with the idea of compiling the CD through her own involvement with the Clare Crusaders Clinic. Her own daughter, four and a half year-old Sally, has Williams Syndrome and attends the clinic.
“The Clare Crusaders Clinic do fantastic work for the children who come here and they’re a brilliant support to all of the parents too, as are the Williams Syndrome Association. I was wracking my brain trying to think what I could do to help them and I came up with the idea of putting together a CD. I mentioned it to friends of mine I’d played with over the years and they were all enthusiastic about it. I started working on compiling the CD at the end of the summer. Some of the tunes had been recorded by the musicians already, for other recordings, while a few were recorded for this collection,” Mary explained.
Mary is part of the very musical Shannon family from Corofin. She started her music on the tin whistle when she was young and by the age of nine was playing the banjo. Her first recording was with a band of young Clare musicians called Disirt Tola, which included her sisters, Majella and Sharon; her brother, Garry, as well as James Cullinane, Bernie Whelan, Joe Rynne, Tierna Browne, Carol Talty, Ronan Browne, Gearoid O hAllbhurain, Brian Collins and Michael Hehir.
Mary taught Irish music in Australia for over a year in the 1990s, during which time she toured with various bands. After that she moved to New Zealand for a short time where she toured with more musicians. She came back to the west coast in 1992. She played for a number of years with the band Bumblebees and with her sister, Sharon’s band, The Woodchoppers.
She said that she hasn’t been playing very much these days, except at home, to her two children.
“To be honest, it’s more of the Wheels on the Bus, than anything else. So it was lovely to be involved in a music project again. I’m not gigging at all these days. On a very rare occasion I play with Sharon’s band. The Bumblebees haven’t played together for about 10 years now. We’re still in touch but haven’t performed together since then,” she added.
For the CD, she picked tunes and songs that she likes and that she felt would work together well on a CD.
“We released the CD this week and it can be bought at the Clare Crusaders Clinic, in Custy’s, Ennis and in the Irish Shop in Ennis. Celtic Note in Dublin also want to stock it. It’s also available to buy through the Clare Crusaders facebook page or from me at reiltincd@gmail.com. There has been good interest in it so far. Eoin O’Neill on Clare FM is also featuring it. I suppose I wanted to put what I can do to good use for the sake of the clinic and the Williams Syndrome Association,” she remarked.
She explained that some people with Williams Syndrome love music and she has found that her own daughter is very keen to hear and try to play music.
“Part of Williams Syndrome is that they tend to love music. And there’s great value in music therapy, even in an informal way, where music can soothe a child very well. That goes for all children, to be honest. I’d love the children to play music and I’ll definitely encourage it. I will teach them myself and already they love music. Sally has started to tip away on the piano already and she has very good pitch.”
Ann Norton of the Clare Crusaders Clinic said this is the first time they’ve had a CD as a fundraising project.
“In recent years we’ve had a number of different fundraising initiatives but this is the first CD, which we’re very enthusiastic about. It is a great CD, really enjoyable to listen to. It’s wonderful to see one of the parents connected with the clinic using her own talent to help the clinic. It’s great to have something so different, particularly traditional music, which is obviously so popular in Clare.
“We also have our Christmas Fair coming up on November 28 and the CD will be on sale there too. I think this CD would be a perfect Christmas present,” she commented.
She added, “We’re very grateful to everyone involved in the CD, especially Mary. Without their voluntary involvement in the CD, it wouldn’t raise money. Now when people buy the CD, they can be assured that the money comes straight to us and the Williams Syndrome Association. A lot of parents use music to relax their children, especially children with special needs. Music calms children down. A lot of children who come here are having music therapy as part of their overall treatment, so it is quite appropriate for one of our fundraisers to be a CD. We may even be able to use some of the music from this CD with the children attending here.”
Ann Breen of The Williams Syndrome Association said that it means a great deal to them that Mary organised the CD to raise funds for their group.
“We’re a very small organisation and we rely completely on fundraising and donations, so we greatly appreciate any funding that we can get. For someone like Mary, who is so talented, to get involved and do this for us means a lot. It also helps to raise the profile of our association and I feel that it’s also an acknowledgement of the work that we do. It is a fantastic CD with top-class music and would be a great addition to any music collection,” she commented.