{"id":6443,"date":"2024-04-28T18:55:34","date_gmt":"2024-04-28T18:55:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inspiringyou.ie\/home\/?p=6443"},"modified":"2026-02-10T18:27:50","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T18:27:50","slug":"6443-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inspiringyou.ie\/home\/6443-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Songs and Stories with Damien Dempsey"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The,&nbsp;<strong>\u201cSongs and Stories\u201d<\/strong>&nbsp;concept is simple. We want to encourage children and schools to make time for songs, stories and tunes in everyday life.&nbsp;Share our <strong>#SongsandStories<\/strong> to keep them alive and learn about each other&#8217;s&nbsp;musical history and folklore. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/damiendempseyofficial\/\">Damien Dempsey<\/a>&nbsp;advocates cultural appreciation, social inclusion, wellbeing, resilience through music, tunes, songs and stories. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Scoil Cholmcille <\/strong>launch<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Damo went back to his roots and launched, <strong>\u201cSongs and Stories\u201d<\/strong> on Thursday April 25<sup>th<\/sup> with the students of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scoilcholmcillesns.ie\/\"><strong>Scoil Cholmcille SNS in Donaghmede<\/strong><\/a>. The students have already created their own <a href=\"https:\/\/www.duchas.ie\/en\"><strong>D\u00fachas<\/strong><\/a> archive of stories from family and local history which they will be presenting on the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Inclusion, respect and kindness are at the heart of the school&#8217;s ethos. One of the highlights of every school year at <strong>Scoil Cholmcille is Multi-cultural&nbsp;Week<\/strong>, when pupils, teachers and parents of as many as 30 different nationalities come together to celebrate the cultural diversity shared by the school community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>About the \u201cSongs and Stories\u201d project<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We believe that the project will encourage cultural understanding among\nstudents throughout the country and help grow empathy, friendships and\nencourage a greater sense of community. The idea is also to show what fun used\nto be like in real life without phones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In\nthe words of <strong>Damien, <\/strong><strong>&#8220;Music is about healing,\ncommunity and hope. It\u2019s a way of life.\u201d<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> Together we can make the world a brighter place, one song and story at a time. Together we can give&nbsp;songs like,&nbsp;<strong>\u201cRare Ould Times\u201d<\/strong>&nbsp;a new lease of life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Irish and international traditions, customs, songs, stories and language can be integrated into the classroom&nbsp;and community groups. Schools and&nbsp;community&nbsp;groups&nbsp;could also&nbsp;would&nbsp;draw on&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.duchas.ie\/en\" target=\"_blank\">the&nbsp;D\u00fachas&nbsp;archives<\/a>&nbsp;and encourage children to talk to older generations to find out more about&nbsp;their&nbsp;our&nbsp;heritage.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Munster Music Academy support<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We are delighted to welcome the team from&nbsp;<strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/munstermusicacademy.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Munster Music Academy<\/a><\/strong>&nbsp;as sponsors and partners.<strong>&nbsp;MMA<\/strong>&nbsp;is committed to nurturing musical potential and offer a warm, creative, inclusive and musical environment for all, in their academy&nbsp;(Killaloe, Co.Clare),&nbsp;at their&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/munstermusicacademy.com\/digital-mma\" target=\"_blank\">digital music academy&nbsp;platform<\/a>&nbsp;and through their schools program&nbsp;<strong>TEMPO:<\/strong> Bringing music into the classroom,&nbsp;designed to engage, encourage and inspire children to enjoy music throughout their entire life.&nbsp;The duo behind MMA,&nbsp;<strong>Tara Doolan<\/strong>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<strong>Pius McGrath<\/strong>, are passionate about supporting the growth of music to as diverse&nbsp;and inclusive&nbsp;an audience as possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When&nbsp;<strong>Inspiring You<\/strong>&nbsp;reached out to MMA about&nbsp;<strong>\u201cSongs and Stories\u201d<\/strong>&nbsp;it immediately resonated with their mission to introduce music&nbsp;and tradition&nbsp;to young performers in an accessible, educational and fun environment. &nbsp;<strong>Munster Music Academy<\/strong>, together with the support of their fantastic musicians and teachers, are excited to work with <strong>Inspiring You<\/strong> to make songs, stories and tunes in everyday life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to get involved?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>It couldn\u2019t be easier.&nbsp;Everyone can get involved. Whether at school, at home or in the community. Simply&nbsp;encourage your students,&nbsp;children or friends to dedicate a little bit of time to sharing songs, stories or tunes.&nbsp;A perfect activity for the summer holidays. If you\u2019d like you can&nbsp;&nbsp;We encourage you to&nbsp;post your videos online under&nbsp;<strong>#SongsandStories<\/strong>&nbsp;and share them to&nbsp;<strong>@inspiringyouirl and&nbsp;@MunsterMusicAcademy&nbsp;<\/strong>to use #Trends to promote a positive message<strong>.<\/strong><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Isabelle Brennan, Scoil Cholmcille teacher<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Isabelle Brennan is a primary school teacher and yoga teacher based in Dublin. She believes in community, connection and creativity as being key pillars of wellbeing, and strives to foster such experiences in her classroom and school. In particular, the therapeutic power of music and time in nature has been amazing to witness amongst her&nbsp;pupils. Isabelle is delighted to be working in collaboration with the team from <strong>Inspiring You<\/strong> and <strong>MMA <\/strong>to get children around Ireland singing and story-telling!&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Help us to inspire others and create an archive of our own through <strong>#SongsandStories<\/strong>.&nbsp;In no time at all it\u2019ll be like the&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/uUNR1ncjgoA?si=k2_YZn45bk5fxCiX\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cRare Ould Times\u201d<\/a>&nbsp;all over again! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Exciting video launch<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Stay tuned for updates of the video<strong> premiere<\/strong> of Damo&#8217;s visit to <strong>Ms.Brennan&#8217;s class<\/strong> and his sing song with over 200 students from <strong>St.Cholmcille&#8217;s SNS<\/strong>. Songs, stories and craic guaranteed!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Media partners:<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Kamil Krolak<\/strong> of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kamilfilms.com\/\">KamilFilms<\/a> is our long established media partner. He capture the music, memories and songs from Damo\u2019s visit and will share them with a wider audience \u2013 inspiring them to dream of, <strong>\u201cSongs and Stories\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Need more information?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>If you&#8217;re a teacher, principal or community leader who would like to get your class or group involved, Munster Music Academy is working with their TEMPO schools programme team to develop a resource to help you create #SongsandStories for your group\/classroom.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you have any questions, suggestions or simply would like to share content you can contact <strong>philip@inspiringyou.ie<\/strong> Our team are only too happy too help.<\/p>\n\n\n<p><!--EndFragment--><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why not organise your own, &#8220;Songs and Stories&#8221; event in your school and home?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[25,5,52],"tags":[98,127,128,123,30,125,124,120,126,121,122],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspiringyou.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6443"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspiringyou.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspiringyou.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspiringyou.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspiringyou.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6443"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/inspiringyou.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6569,"href":"https:\/\/inspiringyou.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6443\/revisions\/6569"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspiringyou.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspiringyou.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspiringyou.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspiringyou.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}