I'm delighted to have been invited to perform at this years Celebration of Christie Hennessy. I remember my very first concert I when to see, it was that of an Irish legend singer/songwriter by the name of Christie Hennessy. I was around 10 or 11 years old at the time and music was my only escape from the reality which surrounded me. I was introduced to Christie's music while growing up in "St Oliver's" which was a state run residential childcare unit located in Limerick city, or as my friends at the time would call it "The Orphanage" (them's were the days when I was an orphan :) It was there that I was introduce to the music of Christie Hennessy. While I was there I was introduced to music from artists like Don McClean, Jimmy McCarty, James Taylor, Luke Kelly, Paul Simon, Peter Sarstedt, Christy Moore, Gordon Lightfoot and many many more. Quite often at night time before I would fall asleep I would get the social workers to write out the lyric's of some of my favourite songs in a notebook so that I could then learn to sing them. So then one day the social worker that introduced me to Christie's music said that she had a ticket for me to go see him play in the University Limerick concert hall. So I was brought along to see him perform at the concert hall and he certainly was a star and it was night I will always remember. Christie's song "Roll Back The Clouds" or as I taught it was called "I am a star" is one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard. Christie Hennessy is a true inspiration for me!! For someone that could not read or write and had severe dyslexia to go on and achieve what he did with his life is a true testament of Christie's character. Christie left school at the age of 12 only to be told that he would never make anything of his life and yet this did not deter him or prevent him from following his heart and that was to be a star. The day that Christie left school the headmaster asked Christie, "So what are you going to do when you leave school" and before Christie could reply, the headmaster said "Shall I tell you what your going to do" Christie replied "yes please" the headmaster replied "nothing!! you will do nothing, because when you leave school at 12 there is nothing to do. Christie had a bit of a laugh to himself and said he felt so so sorry for him because the headmaster just didn't realise that there was so much to do and that Christie was going out there to do it and indeed become a star!
