More than 380 transition year students from all over the west including students from Balla, Ballyhaunis, Castlebar, Louisburgh, and Westport recently took to the stage in Breaffy House Resort a part of the Awakening concert. The event was a celebration of both modern church and contemporary music that had been described by many as Glee meets the X-Factor meets church music.
The students chose to donate the proceeds of this event to Pieta House because unfortunately their generation is all to familiar with the pain and loss that suicide brings to so many homes in our country at this time.
It was an incredibly unique concert, as all the young people only came together for the first time on the day of the concert and managed to perfect and polish their performance within a couple of hours to make it a night to remember. Parents, teachers, family, and friends supported the young people on the night along with many other music lovers and parisioners from all over the diocese.
The organising committee made up of Maeve O'Reilly and Teresa Gibbons (Ballintubber Abbey ), Maura McHugh and Clodagh Barnwell (St Joseph's College, Castlebar ) Siobhan Shaunghnessy (Presentation Secondary School, Headford ), and Siobhan Bradley (Tuam Diocesan Youth Ministry Director ), shared very much in the excitement of the young people and worked incredibly hard to bring a concert of this kind to the west for the first time. Following the concert Siobhan Bradley thanked all those involved and said: "The young people and their teachers involved certainly rose to the challenge, and made it look easy, and created the way for it to be repeated again next year."
