Hi °C | Lo °C MORE than 2,000 children gathered to sing for "unity, peace, harmony and tolerance" on the island of Ireland.
The Galway Peace Proms attracted children from several schools to NUI Galway for concerts on Saturday and Sunday.
The Peace Proms phenomenon was conceived and developed by the directors of the Cross Border Orchestra of Ireland (CBOI) over the past 18 years.
The main idea behind the initiative was to unite young people from different communities on both sides of the Border.
The weekend concerts were led by Ireland's most celebrated conductor, Gearoid Grant, and featured tenor Emmanuel Lawler.
CBOI director Sharon Treacy-Dunne said the recent return of trouble in the North was worrying and had affected a recent Belfast workshop it had planned.
"The full Belfast workshop was unable to go ahead recently, as some schools in the Republic had been afraid to travel up," said Ms Treacy-Dunne.
"The core message from the Peace Proms is still peace, unity, harmony and tolerance," she said.
"It just goes to show the work has to go on and you have to keep spreading that message."
The parents of the participating school children in the Peace Prom concerts in NUIG spoke of how honoured they were that their children were taking part in something "so special".
Irish Independent
