Irish Examiner view: Recognition of music as a way of life
Sidney V Regan, who died in 2017, left €2m to UCC's Department of Music which is located at St Vincents in Sundays Well, Cork. Picture: Dan Linehan
The pandemic's impact on face-to-face concerts has reminded professional musicians of how very precariously they live.
That has always been the case. Those who choose a career in music, at least if they do so exclusively as performers, understand that reality.
That has been brought home over the last year yet the great numbers of those who choose to study music to degree level are a constant of cultural life.
In many cases, it is more a need than a vocation, an inner force that cannot be denied. That was recognised in the most generous way by Sidney V Regan, a master builder, he moved to Cork in the 1960s.
He and his wife Hilda were committed to local music organisations and music-making. Mr Regan, who died in 2017, left €2m to UCC's Department of Music.
The bequest was announced just as UCC’s new sound studio, the most significant investment in the department in recent years, was unveiled.
