Concerts and Churches

It has been an exciting two days. On Friday, we had our first concert at St. Mary's Cathedral in Limerick which went amazing! The space was beautiful, and our audience was so appreciative of our performance.

Then we traveled to Killarney where we got explore the city. This weekend is the Bank Holiday Weekend in Ireland, so the town was decorated with flags on the streets; there were many people there. But this made exploring the town more exciting! 

Next came Saturday. We went on a tour of the Ring of Kerry which was a scenic drive through the County Kerry. The land is beautiful, and it was easy to see how Ireland's nickname is the "Emerald Isle." Over the course of the tour, we came across a hospital that was built by a wealthy Englishwoman who provided care to the predecessors of the IRA in the early 1900s. It also served as a community center for the townspeople as a means for trade. When she died, she left it in her will to the IRA under the condition that all of the counties in Ireland would be united as one country again. Since this didn't and hasn't happened, the buildings were left to ruin, and nobody definitively owns the property. This served as a visual cue to what division can do in a community. Though this is a singular example, it is a model for what division can do in any society.

After our tour, we had a rehearsal for our concert in St. Mary's Church of Ireland in Killarney. The beauty and the history of the places that we have performed so far have left me completely in awe. Not only that, the acoustic qualities of the church were, for lack of a better word, happy. I don't know how else to describe it. I've never been in another space like it where I could feel the sound take on such a joyful vibrancy. Later that night, we performed our concert which was a solid performance. Again, the audience was so appreciative of our concert! Seeing the joy that people feel when we perform will keep me singing for a long time. On a side note, a large portion of our audience was from the U.S. There were people from Ireland as well, but while greeting people, I had a number of people from the U.S. talk to me. Killarney is a tourist city, so that explains that discrepancy. Overall, an amazing experience.