On April 24th the 6 pupils from our 6th class made their Confirmation in St. Patrick’s Church, Moate. This year was different for us because our choir sang at the ceremony. We take turns with the other schools in our parish and this year was our turn. Children from 2nd-5th class were in the choir and we have been working very hard since after the February mid-term break.
Ms Martin brought us all to her classroom and we learned 2 new songs each week. We were also working on 2 pieces on our tin whistles with James our music teacher. We had 19 different songs to learn and they were very different. We learned hymns in English, Irish & Latin. Ms. O’ Connell taught us a piece called “Veni Creator” which was composed in the 9th Century. She also taught us “Dona Nobis Pacem” in Latin as well. We sang “Ár nAthair” in Irish.
Ms Martin, Ms O’Connell & James worked hard with us until they were satisfied that we sounded good. Ms Martin played her guitar, James played the keyboard and we played percussion instruments – tambourine, claves & bongo drums. Patrick Heffernan, a past pupil, joined us on the day and he played his low whistle – he even brought his bouzouki!
It was very hot in the church and we were tired when the ceremony was over. Bishop O’Reilly complimented us on our lovely music and lots of people told Ms Martin & Ms O’Connell that they enjoyed our singing. On Friday of that week we all got an ice-cream sundae for our treat. That was great!
We will be singing again at First Communion on 19th May and we are going to take part in a service of readings & hymns in the church in June before we get our holidays. Please come along if you can.