In a year that has been very strange, very difficult and unprecendented, people have had to adapt and change to a complete new lifestyle. School children and teachers throughout the country were no different. Here, Ms. Triona Masterson, a teacher at St Michael’s National School, Castlepollard takes a look back at a very special and memorable night for the pupils of the school in the lead up to Christmas back in 2019…
A MAGICAL EXPERIENCE
“There was a time before Covid-19 arrived on our shores, before we started wearing masks, when Christmas in schools, meant one thing – it meant plays.
“It meant hastily learning lines like “there is no room at the Inn”, or swiftly sewing a tea towel into a veil and making a large tinfoil star the night before, and sticking cotton wool balls onto made up beards for Wise Men.
“This year, a pause has been placed on this, and in the wonderful 3rd and 4th classes of St. Michael’s National School in Castlepollard. So in a positive response the pupils decided to look back on one very special night in December 2019, when their world changed just a little, and they experienced something magical together.
“There was not one person present on that wet and cold evening in St. Michael’s Church in Castlepollard who didn’t feel the air tingle with the anticipation of 31 children, their nervous teachers, Ms Masterson and Mrs Casey, and the internationally renowned vocal artist Jayne Horan, as they waited to alight the altar and sing their hearts out.
“The whole project was initiated between Jayne Horan (vocal artist from Moate) and Triona Masterson, who both completed the Teacher Artist Partnership Programme with Athlone Education Centre in the previous June 2019. It was a very ambitious plan from the start and after the first rehearsal just eight weeks before the show was to take place, there were a number of raised eyebrows.
“We never thought that we could stand even that long” Rory Morrissey commented. “We did not know if we were really able to sing or not before that night” said Harry McCormack. How were these 8 to 10-year-old children going to memorise the songs that they were to sing in Latin (Adeste Fidelis) German (Stille Nacht), let alone be the third group to perform a new Christmas song call “Winter Lullaby” by Pink Zebra. But, they proved to themselves that the perceived impossible was indeed possible.
CHILDREN’S HARD WORK PAYS OFF
“Fr. Moore had graciously provided the group with the church and its stunning acoustics for the night and he officiated the readings, giving the evening a real feeling of the approaching feast of Christmas that lay six days ahead.
“They worked so hard, they practiced at break times, they learned verses at home. They learned how to sing like true professionals and how to control their breathing and their phrases in music, they learned how to reach and breathe into the high notes, and how smiling helps them sing in tune. A bond was formed between these children and their new teacher and they discovered that they were special, they were gifted, they could pull this off.
THE IMPOSSIBLE BECAME POSSIBLE
“Belief overtook inner doubts, and they filed out onto the altar, silently, holding their red bound folders of music in their left hands. They found their places as the tin whistle group finished up playing their lovely music with PJ Kennedy at the helm. They waited in baited silence, their parents, grandparents and the wider community came along to support this lovely little group of children. They watched for their cue to take their first breath, a gurgle from a baby was heard and then they hummed their first note; poised, they began to sing exactly on cue to the chime of the organ. They sang true and accurately, note perfect, smiling, turning around in between each song for a smile of approval from their teacher who stood with them on the altar. The parents faces beamed in pure pride and joy and the impossible became possible, the die was cast and the magical music transported us all to another time, to another place…….to the real true story of Christmas expressed in song.
It was simple and beautiful, and hair raising in its joyful renditions of ‘We Wish you a Merry Christmas’!
“As Jayne spoke about the song “Winter Lullaby” and the thoughts behind it – the dreams that a mother has for her baby as she holds them in her arms for the first time, the love that exists, that Mary had for Jesus and that all mums and dads have for their children – these children in 2nd and 3rd class, there was not a dry eye in that church. By their side I’ll stay til you drift away, to your winter lullaby. This year, we can all empathise with this feeling of wanting and of needing to protect those around us that we love so dearly. We have all felt that inner stirring of fear, of needing to protect ourselves from the unknown. This song “eerily foretold the future that lay ahead of us in 2020” as Sarah McCabe wrote.
“The church erupted into applause and the smiles of pure pride lit up the classes. It was tangible in every fibre of them how much this meant to them.
“The roof lifted off the church when Jayne sang “Oh Holy Night” and the applause and ovation was instantaneous and spontaneous. It was felt, and not prompted. This amazing group of children had produced a tremendous feat and as their Principal Mr. Beirne said “Im not sure what I was expecting but it wasn’t this!”.
A NEW DAWN
“This Christmas, as they remember their tremendous spirit and occasion, they know that they will sing again, without being muzzled by masks in the future as we look forward to a new dawn in 2021. Hope is springing back as we safely try to make sure that we show our love to each other by staying apart, and by bumping elbows instead of enveloping each other in shoulder crunching hugs.
The ghost of Christmas past echoes in the hearts of this fantastic bunch of children in 3rd and 4th class in St. Michael’s, but without a shadow of a doubt, the Christmas of 2020 will be an altogether quieter time for them, but their pride roars just as loud as if they were once again standing upon the altar and taking a bow.
