Ms O’Donnell formed the 2017 Elders of Ireland Chorus as a means of highlighting the needs of older members of our society and the importance of their participation in society.
“This vocal oratorio is an opportunity for the voices of our elders to take centre stage around these [UN] principles,” she says. “These are the voices that we as a society may have forgotten to listen to.
“The Elders of Ireland Chorus is about giving people a voice. Their voice. The human voice is ageless and is capable of so much.
Imagination
“I believe that whether you are 70, 80, 90 years of age, you still have the extraordinary power of creativity and energy. You have life. You are passionate about life. You have expression and imagination and the energy to keep going.”
Participants in the Chorus project will rehearse once a month in Dublin over the next year in preparation for a performance of the UN Principles for Older Person in 2018 to mark the 70th anniversary of the adoption of the UN Declaration of Human Rights.
Groups from across Ireland, including Ballinasloe, Castlebar, Tullow, Shannon, Multyfarnham, Ballinafid, Clondalkin, Blanchardstown and Tallaght as well as members of Men’s Sheds in Dundalk, Cooley and Kilcock, will take part in the project which Ms O’Donnell says will reveal the “character, truth and wisdom” of the aged in our society.
– Irish Times, 20th February 2017 (https://goo.gl/XDOmHO)