Tommy Makem Festival of Traditional Song

The Committee of the Tommy Makem Festival of Traditional Song Wish to acknowledge the contribution of Tom Sweeney

To the promotion of the Irish Song Tradition. We acknowledge a lifetime of dedication to this art and assert that he now belongs to the poets, musicians, and singers of the land.
We propose that his name be written among their names, that he is of the same inheritance and throughout his years enriched what he inherited. We thank him for his special gifts, for his devotion to the people and his unfailing generosity of heart.

We acknowledge in particular his outstanding qualities as a singer, his superb voice, the wide range of his songs, his gifts of interpretation and communication and his dedication to the worldwide promotion of traditional song. We acknowledge his special work with school children over many years in bringing the art of song to the classroom.

We claim that he belongs to all these people from across the world and of all ages who have sensed the deep spiritual impulse of humanity to be at one and who have worked to give that impulse a particular form, creating and performing the things that unify and uplift through their chosen art, through dance and drama, poem and painting, music, story and song.

We the members of the committee are honored in bringing together family members and friends on this occasion, Friday 20th June 2008 at the City hotel, Armagh, to reassert the worth of Tom Sweeney and our indebtedness to him, and help ensure his name lives among the people.

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