The Miracle Of Music

The Miracle Of Music

By Paul McCann

Sarah was an only child and lived with her parents in a little cottage Ireland .  After the famine of 1847 her parents couldn’t afford to pay the rent on their cottage and were evicted from their home . After her parents died  Sarah was put on a coffin ship and sent to Australia to work as a domestic help on a big property there .

The death of her parents and her transportation to the other side of the works made her angry and bitter . She fought with everyone and found herself in prison .

Sentenced for ten years hard labour made her even more wild and often list her temper on the guards and inmates in the prison . She couldn’t be tamed and was treated harshly but she refused to show any sign of weakness and kept not her head held high . 

She always sang  Irish songs and showed defiance to everyone . Her  strength of spirit was an inspiration to some but for others it only gave mire reasons to punish her . With all their efforts to belittle she never bowed down to anyone .  

When she was released from prison she found a job working on a farm for a doctor who treated her well and eventually she mellowed and they eventually were married .

After her husband Richard was offered a position in Africa they both left Australia to start a new life there .

They had a daughter born in Africa who was given the name Bernadette who as a young girl was as furry as her Mother once was . After many years of trying  to disciple Bernadette her mother realised nothing could be done and hoped that her behaviour would change as she grew older .

The one thing Bernadette did love about her mother was the songs she would often sing .

Bernadette grew up listening to rebel songs and found a sense of  freedom when she sang along .

Sarah and Richard were happily married and Bernadette was an only child . With the death of her parents Bernadette became more attentive to the needed of others .

She even started helping out with some of the planting and harvesting of crops . In her daily life around the village she grew fond of an African man called 

Will who was also a doctor who came to moved to Ethiopia after his graduation  .

They were married and  had a baby , they called Billy .

Billy grew  up hearing  Irish’s songs that his Mother  sang and as he listened  to those songs Bernadette told stories her mother had mentioned about the famine in Ireland .

Billy was really interested in all of those stories of struggle and oppression and it gave him inspiration so no matter how hard it was in the village Billy never complained .

After Bernadette  and Will died of old age a famine came the village in Ethiopia and times were hard . Three quarters of the tribe in his  village were dying from hunger and those who were left needed help . Billy had learnt a lot from his mother and he used some of what he knew to try and keep things together in the village .

He always looking at ways to keep things going in the village  Billy had learnt how to play the Tin Whistle and began to play some of the tunes his mother taught him . He also sang some of the songs Bernadette had learnt from her mother so these tunes and songs were inherited from generations who had gone through hardship and suffering . These were the things Billy used to help tunes in his village who were going through hardships .

Once a week around the campfire at night and all the villagers would gather to sing those songs and they all  loved that .

It brought a wonderful smile on 

the faces of everyone .

Billy was encouraged and it gave him an idea to try and contact some of the Irish singers and bands he had heard on his radio . 

Everyday he started writing letters asking Irish musicians to come and give a concert for people  in his village , It seemed like an unseen hand of a force from beyond was helping him to find contacts  in the music industry . When he began to get reply  letters back he knew that this mission of his was going somewhere .

 Especially when one of the letters mentioned instead of coming to your village to do a concert we are thinking of doing a huge concert for all the hungry villages in Ethiopia .

Word went around and more people wets jumping on the band wagon . From that moment news all around the world spread about a live aid concert where superstars and popular bands  would play for free  and the public could make donations to help the hungry people in their villages in Africa .

People all over the world were interested and donations came in to support those in need .

Ethiopia’s a begging bowl was over spilling and music was played .

People had  prayed for a miracle and now it was there  The bands 

played and singers sang their songs with love and passion in their heart to feed the hungry .

The call went out , Ireland donated seven million pounds to help the hungry in Africa .

They people of Ireland have knows the effects  of famine and they once had been a starved  people they gave gladly to help

those in need of a feed . 

Many other countries donated  millions and  live aid was coming through .

After the music and the concert ended food was bought to bring in trucks to the African villages however there were no roads to a lot of those places and as a result  food parcels had to be dropped 

from Hercules planes up in the sky to land on the ground somewhere near to where those hungry people lived in those remote  villages .

But there were others greedy eyes watching sky and were eagerly waiting for those parachutes with food to come .

Government soldiers came and took away all the food for themselves instead ,

and left all the hungry ones in their villages bury their dead .

There is a lot  good and bad about that situation but no matter how hard  it was , music found a way to make a difference in the world .

The End