Taking Lanka’s healing through music message to Ireland
Children from the Music Project
Paul Loughran’s and Joseph O’ Connor’s arrival in Sri Lanka saw them immediately travel from Katunayake to Mullaitivu to Kurunegala. When we met them in Colombo a few days later, it was impossible to see any streak of fatigue save their freshly sunburnt faces. Here on a project centred around the use of music in the reconciliation process in post war Sri Lanka, the two collaborated with Sri Lanka’s Music Project, which had the starring role in their work.
Heading back home to Ireland, their project will consist of a 25-minute radio documentary to be broadcast on Near FM, an article to be published in The Irish Times (online and print), a magazine feature in InBusiness, a 2-minute report to be broadcast and posted on Near TV online, and a photography exhibition to be held at Dublin City University in early 2017.
Paul and Joe first met at university where they both discovered a passion for media and global development. Their shared interests would follow them in their chosen fields of work. Joe is currently the editor of Irish magazine InBusiness while Paul, a sound technician and radio producer would be a part of Nearfm; a not-for-profit community media project which focuses on community development and social emphasis.
Providing a platform for them to combine their work with their passion for social change and development is the Simon Cumbers Media Fund. Created in aid of promoting better quality media coverage of development issues in the Irish media, the fund supports 30 different projects every year.
Although this marks their first visit to Sri Lanka, the duo has worked together on another Simon Cumbers funded project back in 2013 in Tanzania. Constantly on the go, they have also been separately involved in projects with the fund, with Joe travelling to Palestine last year and Paul in 2009.
Paul Loughran
The idea to base their project in Sri Lanka was a practical one. “We wanted to look at a country that hadn’t been covered before,” says Joe. The Music Project based around Kurunegala and Thunukkai is involved with teaching children the rudiments of music through the core instrument of recorder and then on to violin, melodica (as the foundation for brass and woodwind) and percussion also teaching English as a link language. Since the first time the children worked together in 2012, the Project has evolved into orchestras with young musicians skilled in the recorder, flute, violin, cello, trumpet, clarinet and percussion.
For Joe and Paul the Project, which they discovered online, was a familiar story. “There’s a similar project in Northern Ireland.” Called “Beyond Skin” the Northern Irish organization uses music, arts and media to build cultural relations and address issues of racism and link communities with different backgrounds. The project was ideal for the two of them, as they both share an interest in arts, while Paul is a musician himself.
The duo then set to work with Paul handling the videography and Joe the writing. Stepping out of the Bandaranike International Airport, the two drove straight to Mullaitivu where they made house visits with two translators. “It was important to see all the parts of it. To get a full picture.” Joe can’t shake off the image of one of the mothers he spoke to. Against the sparse backdrop of her little house she stood, a victim of the war, on her one leg with the help of crutch. He recalled the pride she had in her daughter’s musical skill, although she was still struggling to make ends meet. “We don’t want to shy away from the fact that a lot of work still needs to be done” Joe adds, hoping to remind people here and in Ireland of Sri Lanka outside of its exotic touristy bubble.
This project was done with the hope that it might ignite and inspire the Irish public, seeing several parallels between the two countries. During their interviews with parents of the young musicians they discovered another much familiar similarity. “Parents regardless of country have an opinion about their kids selecting a career in the arts,” they smile. Parents weren’t shy about their infinite pride in their kids’ talent and ability as they rushed towards them with photographs of them playing their instruments but there was the all too familiar aside of wanting them to put the same interest into math and science.
For the children they met in Kurunegala, playing in the orchestra not only allowed them a new experience but new friendships with their co-members from the North, with whom they still communicate with. “It (reconciliation) is important to start with the younger generation,” the two reflect, watching initial racial labels melt into “flute player” or “violinist”. “And the arts are a great way to do that,” they add.
Joseph O’ Connor