A US-based charity which provides hospital treatment in American for child victims of the war on Gaza benefitted last night from a unique display of solidarity from the Irish American community which was co-ordinated by our sister paper The Irish Echo.
Headlined by artists and writers from Irish America, the charity concert on Fifth Avenue, New York also included Palestinian performers and authors including lbtisam Azem whose book The Disappearance was yesterday long-listed for the Booker Prize.
Guests of honour at ‘Caoineadh do Gaza – A Keening for Gaza’ included a representative from the Irish Government and Ambassador Riyad Mansou, Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the United Nations.
Among the artists donating their time and talent to the fundraiser for HealPalestine were Belfast film-maker and artist Marcus Robinson, author and former Black ’47 frontman Larry Kirwan, fiddler and singer from Boston Liz Hanley, Irish singer-songwrriter Mary Courtney, author John Kearns with singer Siobhán Regan as well as the famed Darrah Carr Dance troupe. Yaa! Samar Dance Theatre performers sang from their recent play Gathering, which premiered in New York last year, while Ibtisam Azem read poems from a Gaza poet.
John Kearns and Siobhán Regan
Concluding his set, with his self-penned ‘Black ‘47’ ballad which tells the story of An Gorta Mór and names the British culprits behind the policies which caused famine across Ireland, Larry Kirwan said he looked forward to hearing a Palestinian singer write a new song naming those who are to blame for the suffering in the beleaguered Gaza strip. “No more Black ‘47s,” he declared. “Not in Ireland and not in Gaza.”
Ambassador Mansour, addressing a full house, at the Irish American venue, said he was overwhelmed by the power of the performances.
