THE GREY HARES ENSEMBLE
An elders community creative project
FIRST GATHERING: September 11, 2024 at 11.00 – 13.00
Redemptorist Centre of Music, Island Road, Englishtown, Limerick
(Located behind St. Mary’s RC Church Code: V94 POA9)
HONORARY PATRON: Noreen McManus
DIRECTOR: Nóirín Ní Riain Ph. D
ADVISORY BOARD:
Carmel Sheridan – Secretary
Mike Quirke
Marie Richardson
MISSION STATEMENT
Grey Hares Experience is a novel, open, diverse, and inclusive community of
third-age adventurers, who gather fortnightly to explore ageing with panache
and share songs and stories from various cultures and traditions with the
purpose of ageing well, physically and spiritually.
In recognising the many health, emotional, and spiritual benefits of collective
fun singing and communal sharing , Grey Hares Ensemble promises to enhance and enrichen these latter years through mutual, combined voice
work which will be both powerful and playful.
PRESS RELEASE – THE GREY HARES INITIATIVE
Core Values and Invitation
Do you sometimes wonder if you are just passing the time until your time is
past? Discovering like-minded companions could prove the perfect way to
expand and increase your health, well-being, social and spiritual life in the
twilight years.
This community gathering of citizens welcomes anyone over 60 who wishes to
age well and enhance relationship in the afternoon and evening of life.
There is much research today about the ageing process.
The psychoanalyst Carl Yung was prophetic when he made the bold statement
on the evolutionary rationale to living longer: “a human being will certainly not
grow to be seventy or eighty [now ninety and hundred] if this longevity had no
meaning for the species. The afternoon of life must have a significance of its
own.”
In other words, old age must have a crucial consequence for the human race
beyond the obvious physical ravages that time can bring to one’s door. The soul,
the inner spiritual life, remains chronologically untouched and open to full
health despite the passage of years.
However, this healthy soul state needs tending to and nourishment through
introspection, relationship, ritual and a deepening of spiritual practice.
Furthermore, Yung, and so many experts on Gerontology – the scientific study
of old age and its problems – agree that the primary value of seniority on a
personal level has to do largely with an integration of the Spiritual in one’s life.
Coupled with this attention to the inner life of the Spirit, Jung held that it is
through a creative life that one takes that unique step into the Spiritual world.
The imagination is that secret key code – unique to each one of us – that
unlocks the treasure trove to ageing with panache.
Being a member of a social group with people of similar age and like-minded
interests is a sure way of living a life of wisdom and living it to the full. As the
fourteenth century German mystic and philosopher Meister Eckhart puts it;
“wisdom is finding the next thing you have to do, doing it with all your heart
and finding delight in doing it.”
Singing, song sharing and other creative endeavours are ageing spiritual Pilates.
Indeed, at any age, research will tell us these activities are simply good for us.
Why would an elder adopt and support such a venture?
The answers are many. There is an ultimate purpose in gathering together which
is to share in the experience – to paraphrase Eckhart – of stepping out of
personal isolation which so often the arrival of growing older can bring. There
is the new happiness of meeting others and creating a shared sound together.
Secondly, it offers elders the opportunity to interact and indeed to maintain a
youthful curious spirit throughout the third life path.
Although our core thread will be through singing, it is intended that there will
be a large focus on personal interaction around the ageing process and every
person will have a voluntary voice during our gatherings. This initiative is not
to merely produce a choir . That can be very impersonal and anonymous, Our
focus will be to give every person a platform for optional individual sharing at
some point in time.
This is a time of fun too since humour has been scientifically proven to
enhance the ageing process.
We begin from the premise of no auditions, no prior musical reading ability, and
no solos required. Just bring an open heart and voice to treat yourself to
wholesome merriment which will banish boredom forever.
Many recent studies on ageing and creativity have proven conclusively that
participation in simple creative singing ventures provides older adults with
tremendous physical, metal, spiritual and emotional benefits. Such adults make
fewer trips to the doctor, are on smaller amounts of medication and in short, live
a fuller life longer.
The Director
Nóirín Ní Riain, the director, is in her seventies and has led many online groups
on ageing with panache and good humour through creativity. With this
expertise, she will share her own life-long experience of the benefits of singing
for oneself and with others.
Our goals for the future include:
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Setting up an authentic, excellent environment for artistic creativity for elders.
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Incorporating diverse voices and communities in our gatherings
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Break down the barriers to accessible artistic education
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To serve as a model for other creative arts ventures for the older community
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To provide an anti-dote to loneliness, depression, isolation and anxiety, all of which can become endemic in older, post retirement phases of life.
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To make available a safe, secure setting for genuine communication which is light hearted and meaningful.
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Finally, our intention is to create a new community of wise friends of advanced years whose shared joy is in meeting and singing on a regular basis.
Criteria for membership
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Any person over the age of 60.
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An open heart, receptive to new ideas, and enthusiastic to new vocal skills and practices
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Living in and around Limerick
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Willingness to meet every two weeks for two hours on a Wednesday morning between 11.00 and 13.00 which will include some singing, a cuppa and various stimulating conversations
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The song scape will range from very basic fun chants and songs carefully chosen by Nóirín which in turn will develop organically as Grey Hares Ensemble takes on a life of its own on its evolution through its members
Grey Hares sets out with the intention to enrich and support the lives of its members, and seeks to widen perspectives, and strengthen community bonds.
PRAGMATICS
Timing: A fortnightly gathering on a Wednesday morning between 11.00 and 13.00 which will include some communal singing, a cuppa and a sharing of elders.
Venue: Redemptorist Music Centre, Island Road, Englishtown, Limerick. (This centre is situated behind the Roman Catholic Church of St. Marys and beside the walls of Limerick.)
Area Code: V94 POA9
Repertoire: Wide-ranging. – All of which will be chosen by Nóirín to embrace the concerns of the ageing process, meaning in life, humour and transcendence of the Ego.