LIKE MANY cultural pursuits along the Border, music was often drowned out during the Troubles. But no sooner had the 1994 ceasefires been called than one Louth woman set out to help it recover its voice. Sharon Treacy-Dunne was a music teacher in the St Louis Secondary School, Dundalk. And her big idea - a little mad at the time - was to establish the Cross-Border Orchestra of Ireland, writes Frank McNally
So began an adventure that, in retrospect, looks like a reverse image of IRA decommissioning. For the cornerstone of Sharon's plan was the St Louis nuns' rusting store of high-quality musical instruments. These had been imported from France and Germany in the 1950s as part of an idealistic but doomed plan to sow orchestral culture in the area, and had long fallen into disuse and disrepair.
Just as the IRA was beginning the process that would lead to its weapons being put beyond use, Sharon began looking for the money needed to press her instruments back into service. A second cache, from St Louis in Monaghan - Nuala O'Faolain's alma mater - was soon added to the first. And as peace took hold and a flood of orchestral volunteers came forward, they were quickly armed: "Anybody who put a hand up, I put an instrument in it." There were 80 or 90 musicians assembled in jig-time. But it wasn't always going to be so easy. Born in Inniskeen ("on the farm next to Patrick Kavanagh's") before her family moved four miles away to the exotic surroundings of Hackballscross, the would-be orchestra manager knew better than most people that the Border counties could be stony, grey soil for musical projects.
As a student in the 1980s, her only idea had been to "go to college and get away" - a plan thwarted when the St Louis school offered her a job. Things had changed in 1994, to be sure. But although the ceasefires made cross-border student travel possible, getting cross-community involvement for her fledgling orchestra was another challenge altogether.
She wrote to 219 Protestant schools in the North. Two replied: Wellington College, Belfast, and Banbridge Academy. Even when a school said yes, it would typically be just the principal and one teacher who were fully behind the project. Parents were deeply suspicious.
"It was horrendously difficult," Sharon recalls. "At a meeting in Belfast, one man accused me of trying to brainwash kids and destroy their culture. Sometimes I'd be in tears on the way home." The segregationist mentality was starkly illustrated when she organised a trip to California. Some Northern parents wanted their children to fly on a separate plane and stay in separate hotels. Sharon refused and lost several members; but for those who remained, the commitment deepened.
Among its confidence-building measures, the CBOI has evolved to incorporate Lambeg drums and bagpipes and has added Protestant standards - such as Highland Cathedral- to its repertoire. One result of the fusion was an extraordinary event in Rome last April, when the cross-border, cross-community orchestra played a specially commissioned O'Neill Suite, first in a Catholic church, then a Presbyterian one, to mark the 400th anniversary of the Flight of the Earls.
Given the persistence of his pursuer, Gearóid Grant never had any chance of escape when, a decade ago, Sharon decided he would be principal conductor. She had identified his talents - including "dynamism and a big personality" - as the sort required to inspire a large group of youngsters. And after "stalking" him - his description - for a while, she got her man.
Indeed, whatever else holds the project back, it will not be the founder's modesty. "Being where we were, I knew we had to be brilliant to get it off the ground. Getting the top conductor in Ireland was part of that. Unless the orchestra was brilliant, I knew it wouldn't attract people." Her ambition extends to overseas touring. From the start, it was "today Dundalk, tomorrow the world". In an already impressive cv, the orchestra has filled New York's Carnegie Hall ("six standing ovations"), to which it returns next year. The 2010 tour will be to Shanghai; and the year after that, Sydney Opera House.
Playing standards have been heightened by a decision that came about through student demand. At first the orchestra was confined to the 12-18 age group. But as happens with youth clubs, 19-year-old veterans found themselves bereft and appealed for clemency. The ceiling has since been raised to 24.
The current membership is 160, making for a big sound in every sense. Add the many youth choirs with which it works - up to 500 singers at a time - and the CBOI's reach is an estimated 20,000 Irish children within the next five years.
The problem, as always, is funding. After years of benefiting from the EU's peace dividend, the orchestra will miss out on the next round, which is focused on economic targets. That leaves the Government's reconciliation fund; the local authorities of Louth and Newry and Mourne; Dundalk Institute of Technology (which provides free rehearsal space); and private benefactors such as the (Larry) Goodman Foundation.
Luckily for the orchestra, Sharon is very hard to refuse when she asks for something. "I'm a passionate believer in the ability of music to improve young people's lives. Sport too. But I'm not sporty; so music is my thing. In fact, I'm completely obsessed with it. I'll work at it 24 hours a day if I have to."
fmcnally@irish-times.ie