The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
It was a moment of pure magic. A lazy Spring afternoon in 1996, and 10-year-old Peter O’Donohue is hammering his way through Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. The wooden upright piano creeks under his heavy fingers as finally, mercifully, he brings the tune to a finish. It’s fair to say that young Peter is not a natural pianist. He shifts anxiously on the piano stool in the sitting room of his home in Fanore, waiting uncomfortably for the judgement of his piano teacher. That teacher, Archie Simpson, from over the mountain in Lismorahaun, exhales deeply and turns to the youngster, a kind look in his eye. “Peter,” he says, “why don’t we try something different”. Archie gets to his feet and unprompted bursts into a magnificent, full-throated bass. In that moment, live classical music echoes through the valleys of Fanore, possibly for the first time, and hundreds of lives are changed forever. This magic moment was the first time that Peter O’Donohoe …
Read More »