Sunday, August 26, 2018

Stand4Truth

Journal entry Sunday August 26th, 2018:

...Barbara texts me about the rally: "An alternative event to the Phoenix Park madness (where the Pope would be saying mass to over half a million people) is the Stand4Truth thing at the Garden of Remembrance on top of Parnell Square at 3 o'clock. A very fine singer by the name of Hozier will perform amongst others. Check it out if you like, it's only a few minutes walk ☺." 12:04pm

shower and head out to G of R 2:15 - see ppl being interviewed at the base of the cross pond - walk onto Parnell Square East - stand by a pole near the curb til the event begins at 3pm-ish - Colm O'Gorman speaks (he's I later found, a survivor of clerical abuse and the current Executive Director of Amnesty International Ireland; grey haired and bearded, dapper, well-dressed and well spoken, very handsome) and then introduces each artist. 

Sarah Clancy read "Cherishing for Beginners" and says: "The only thing worse than a long mass is a long poem." then reads her long (& extraordinary) poem - a man sang (now that I think about it, I believe he was the first one on) "Motherless Child" and tried to get everyone to sing "a long way from home" but no one (but maybe 3 people) did - once the road closed it got wicked crowded and I walked down Parnell East toward Parnell Street - had a smoke, bought 4 buttons/pins for €4 total - took some pix and a nice Dad with a toddler walked past (maybe leaving a bit early?) and handed me his blue placard that read Truth - Justice - Love.

walk toward the stage and back to the sidewalk but just to the left of the stage - cld see a bit thru the black back and side drops - Hozier came on at 4ish to sing "Take Me to Church" then Colm spoke once more. Hozier plus a group of singers came out again and sang Nina Simone's "I Wish I Knew How to Be Free" that (I'm pretty sure) ended with "We Shall Overcome" - head back to SLP and not to the last Magdalene Laundry on Sean MacDermott Street - home by 4:40

sidebars:
- they had sign language interpreters!
- Brian Kennedy sang Lennon's "Imagine" and added a verse
- Hozier: very handsome in a hip grungie way - Wikipedia'd him and he was born in 1990 - could not stop laughing. fuck, I'm old.





(Hozier photo kidnapped from @hozier_fan_art)












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