Acclaimed Irish Artist Releases CD in Aid of Carrickmines Survivors
In the early hours of the 10th of October 2015 a fire broke out at a halting site in Carrickmines in South County Dublin. Ten Travellers lost their lives including a young mother who was pregnant. This awful tragedy was followed by some of the worst discrimination this state has ever seen. Acclaimed Irish artist Ron Kavana, who is a member of the Celebration of Traveller Music Initiative, has a released an album in aid of the two surviving orphans of the blaze.
On October 10th 2015 Willie Lynch (25), Tara Gilbert (27) Jodie (9), Kelsey (4), Jimmy Lynch (39), Sylvia Connors, Thomas Connors (27) Jim (5), Christy (2) and Mary (5 months) died together when the large mobile home they were sleeping in caught fire. Their mobile home was one of five on the “temporary” Traveller site, which had been on Glenamuck Road, Carrickmines for eight years.
A year after the tragedy, the surviving children Mick (8) and Tom (5) are being cared for by the their grandparents on the temporary halting site they were moved to on the site of the Ballyogan landfill when local residents objected to them being housed on a nearby council owned site on Rockville Drive. The site is unsafe due to high levels of methane gas from the landfill, rats, dust and inaccessibility.
The Celebration of Traveller Music Initiative organised a fundraiser gig for the survivors shortly after the fire, after which Ron Kavana decided to release an album to raise money for the surviving children, Mick and Tom.
Ron Kavana is a songwriter of international acclaim with recordings of his songs and tunes performed by over two hundred artistes including The Pogues, Mary Coughlan, Dick Gaughan, Eileen Ivers and The Voice Squad. In the 90s, following his time with The Pogues, his band ‘Alias Ron Kavana’ were the darlings of the international folk scene. Ron’s first three albums, two by the Alias band and his solo Home Fire all featured in the UK Indie Top Twenty at the same time. The latter was MOJO magazine’s “Highly Recommended” Irish Folk album in their 1000 Essential Albums of all time. At this time ‘Alias Ron Kavana’ won the Folk Roots (now fROOTS) award for Best Live Band on three consecutive years and topped the bill on the Glastonbury Acoustic/Folk/Roots Stage for those three years. His ‘Songs Of Rebellion, Resistance & Reconciliation’ sold 100,000 copies in its first three months of release earning Kavana a gold disc. His last official release, the book and 4-CD box set, Irish Ways, made the HMV Top Ten Albums chart - a very rare achievement for a box set and was hailed as his “masterpiece, chronicling the socio-political history of Ireland in song like no other”.
October 10th saw the release of RESPECT! his latest CD. The title track calls for respect for Irish Travellers and, in particular, for the dead and the survivors of the Carrickmines tragedy. All profit from sale of the CD will be donated to a trust fund for the children orphaned by this horrific disaster.
For more information or to purchase a copy of the CD contact www.posterfishpromotions.com
