Healing through music

AS the Irish Government considers sending relief peacekeepers to free French soldiers to fight against the self-styled Islamic State, last night saw musicians from the four corners of Ireland offer support of a different kind in Dublin’s St Patrick’s Cathedral.

Uniting in cultural solidarity with the people of France, they staged a special concert of French music for orchestra and choir, including works by Ravel and Faure.

So many people wished to express their support for the French at this time of suffering that the free event was booked out well in advance.

It was, as Irish Examiner columnist Fergus Finlay of the Barnardos charity put it, a “wonderful, moving, and healing occasion”.

There could hardly have been a more fitting or more devotional response to the sheer violence of the terrorist attacks on Paris in which 130 people died as they went about their normal lives, listening to music, dining in restaurants, or drinking in bars.

The countless musicians who volunteered to play last night, and the countless helpers, are the proof that life goes on.