One Voice in town

The atmosphere at ‘One Voice Singers’ is warm and inviting, the flow of chatter among those attending portrays the simple happiness of togetherness and being present to sing.

A hush falls over the group, all voices came together as one to the soft notes of a keyboard. The lyrics of ‘Lean on Me’ echo around Hub Muinchille.

The Cootehill singing group celebrated its one-month anniversary last Thursday evening (June 8). The initiative was set up by Philomena McQuaid and Gemma Kettle with the aim of bringing the community together.

“We have people living in the community for many years and we don’t know them, we have never met them,” Philomena said, a note of regret in her voice.

“As much as it is about singing, it is about social gathering and getting to know each other in the communities.

“To include is probably the idea behind it, to be inclusive and to get to know each other.

“That’s the ethos behind the One Voice group,” she explained.

Along with co-organiser Gemma, the pair contacted ‘One Voice One Town’, a national initiative aimed at integrating communities. They provided advice and funding for setting up the group.

“We got to know them, and we decided ‘right, we’ll give it a go in Cootehill’,” Philomena explained.

They received boxes of posters in several different languages with the understanding that not everybody has English as their first language.

“I do think that helped because when we put everything up in English it doesn’t always attract,” Philomena explained.

“The fact that it was put up in the various languages lets all people feel that you are making that effort to reach out.”

Attending the group in the past few weeks have been people from Hungary, Ukraine, Brazil and Ireland.

Asked if she can see the benefit of the singing group within the community, Philomena let the WhatsApp group speak for itself: “People are feeding in and out of it saying ‘we can’t make it this week, but we’ll be back next week and we’re really looking forward to it.’

“People are looking forward to it,” she repeated.

The element of not having any pressure to attend is appealing to many. “You can come in and out as you please,” Philomena emphasised.

So far, the group have been trying out new genres of music, taking suggestions from each other. “They are songs that we would all kind of know but they are in the English language.

“What we have invited our group to do is put forward songs that they would like to do, and that’s including obviously our new communities.”

Last Thursday, the lyrics of Adele’s ‘Easy on Me’ and ‘Lean on Me’ coursed around the room.

“Singing and song is a great release, I think it’s a huge thing for wellbeing and that’s such a big word now,” Philomena said, emphasising the importance of “letting everything else go by the wayside for an hour and just enjoying it”.

Philomena and Gemma say that people can even come and just listen.

“There’s people coming and saying, I’m not a singer,” Philomena said, to which she responded: “Can you make tea?”

“You don’t have to be a singer, it’s not what it’s about.”

The group meets on Thursday evenings at 8pm in Hub Muinchille in Cootehill for one hour. Gemma and Philomena welcome everybody to come along, have a cup of tea and enjoy the music.

“It’s the shortest hour of the week,” Philomena said. “It just goes in a blip,” she concluded, which the Celt can confirm.