Shining A Light - The Story
Shining a Light - the story
read by Sailí Áine Ní Mhurchú
As the sun sinks low on a dark winter evening and the howling winds strip leaves off the trees, a veiled woman slips down from the fairy ring at Mount Seskin. As she walks over these hills, frost glints at her footsteps and creatures from fields and woodlands flock to her side. She lifts her staff and lightning stabs the stormy skies illuminating the ravens and crows swirling around her head. Winter is truly here.
On one such dark night, this shadow of ancient times emerges again from the gloom. She moves along pathways and through the spaces between houses, rooftops and doorways. The light of the moon and stars are at her fingertips and she can see what has emerged over time in each corner of South Dublin.
Here she sees Jobstown that used to be farmland nestling in the western foothills of the Dublin Mountains. Now there are houses and schools where the energy of young people pours out of Citywise and onto the number 27 bus. The wind blows her closer to Tallaght, once the site of an old monastery. The old mill is still there, but now a bustling town grows upwards with tall walls and glass windows. She feels that her gifts of knowledge, healing and peace are at work here. Songs and music pour out from the places where creativity and learning happen and she hears many voices speaking in Gaelic and other mother tongues from around the world.
She notices that natural life survives in the rivers and streams - the Dodder, Fettercairn, Tymon and Whitestone that flow under and alongside the man-made roads and walkways. She sees that Nature still has meaning for many people as they prepare for new spring growth in their gardens and plant pots on windowsills.
For this one night, she becomes most splendid when she hears music and voices singing. From Deansrath Community College, the spoken words of young poets ascend and unite with St Aidan’s Community College in Brookfield. Surely, this place hearkens back to a time when there were fields and farms. Then, moving on to old Dolcan’s meadow, she finds it transformed into Clondalkin. Rising up beyond the Garda station, the take away shops and beauty salons is St. Mochua’s round tower that has endured the ages of industry, development and expansion.
She shines a light on Kingswood and melodious voices of choirs drift through the windows of the Community Centre. Her light catches all the everyday places, the industrial estates, schools, playgrounds, churches, temples, mosques, shopping centres and libraries. These are where memories are made and they are extraordinary.
The parks Tynan Hall, Ballymount, Tymon and the playing fields are green and open sanctuaries for people to walk, see family and friends at a distance and find peace. Moreover, she knows that nearby there are the remnants of magic and the old fairy tree where people leave their wishes and dreams for better, safer and happier times.
Now, because she knows that something harmful has disrupted the normal course of their lives, she shines her light on the heroes of these communities. Those who are making them safe and cared for, helping them to learn and create, keeping them fed, supplied and connected are recognised and celebrated in the beams of her light.
She is radiant when she sees so many hands of friendship and creativity silhouetted in the windows of homes, community centres and libraries. Children, families and young people have made these beautiful, illuminated signs of their goodwill and understanding. And with these gifts, she understands that the light will continue to shine even when she slips away like a swirling mist in the hollows of the hills.
In December how will you welcome this Winter visitor to your neighbourhood?

Illustration by Jackqualyn Gray
Solas/Light by Lyndsey Lawlor
There once was a time there was nothingness
Dark
But then, one day
Before days did exist
There was this hiss
This burst of energy
This fire
This heat
This, LIGHT
Solas
And this light did burn
And light the planet we call home
And with it brought tribes and communities
And with this, immunity
From dark, from lonely
From isolation
But homely
Only
We don’t know of who’s hands is this doing
This gluing of places and people
Our brains are needful of answers
For this could not be god,
And science tells us so
This was woman.
She brings us knowledge,
in the shape of our schools
She brings us peace
When the storm settles
She brings us kindness
That we must spread to all around
And we will heal,
Together we will heal
And she sees this
She plans it
She is the overseeing prophet
She is the bringer of light
I light the eyes of the children
I light the fields where they play
I am the mother calling you in for dinner
I am the bringer of light
She is the light that grows the garden
your ma tells you to get out of
We are surrounded by her creation of
mountains and hills
We walk upon sacred stones
We fly with the crows
We are grounded
By our mothers
When we commit wrong
We speak in unison
Our communities sing the same song
We are the accent of “ah jaysis howiyih
your ma your da, your missis, your fellih”
We are “swear on me ma’s life”
“and gis a bitta dat”
we are the large warm voices in the streets
shouting up the flats
We are born out of one hole
and we die into another
and what we get in between is a bonus
We are not paying the water charges
not answering the door to the salesmen
buying carpet from the local tradesmen
We are LIGHT
I light the family that feeds you
I am the sister that needs you
I put a smile on the table
I am the bringer of light
Feel like it’s only when you fly the nest
To come home to the community do you realise
we have people with nothing,
willing to give their everything
south Dublin is a fairy tale
and we weep for connection
integration of light brought from all corners of the
world
to land in this town
and we are no bigger or better than the next
and we shall all parade in the same crown
While watching
Fireworks spark effervescent Autumn
Over Close and Crescent
Winter,
But the neighbours are never cold
Even in a rush
Always have time
To send love to yours from mine
To say the virus won’t define us
But if anything unite us
And build light thus
Allow grandmother to fuss
Are you hungry?
Can you see me?
I’m no good at skype you see
What I see is that we strive to live in a place
where the colour of your
skin doesn’t matter
where we will judge people on the heat of their
hearts
communities build light
collaborating through art
and this is just the start
To share stories from the Echo at the time
Na flora ‘is na fána, na saoilse,
Shine
on me, shine on you
and the fairy tree too
We zoom call our friends
from our homes where we isolate
we encourage the team work
mirrored in the art of Emma Blake
This is light
I am community strength
I am diversity through art
I am the warmth of the heart
I am the bringer of light
For light is immortal
And this I believe
Until the very last white spec on this earth
disappears
When we’ve used up all of our resources with
our own greed
Our world needs us
She needs us
She is getting old and
We must take hold
And stop tearing apart our home
We light the gardens and the footpaths
We light the schools
We are film makers
We are song writers
And we sing across the land
We may live from hand to mouth
But we feed mouths with those hands
We have plans
We have dreams
We are the children of tomorrow
We take flight
WE are the bringers of light

Thanks to St Aidan’s Community School, Deansrath Community College, Kingswood Community College, Kingswood Community and Youth Choirs and SubSounds youth music group for their contributions to the spoken word project with Lyndsey Lawlor