BIG NEWS of a great project coming this way from Tasmania

Where to start...for a few months now I've been in contact with John Hagan a journalist originally from Ireland but now living in Tasmania.We got chatting following a very interesting article of his in a national sunday newspaper here,(there's a link to the article on the links page)..long story short I had written a song called Sky and Sea which echoed very strongly the subject he was talking about ,namely the plight of those that had been transported to Australia/Van Diemen's land in the 19th century.I sent the song to John and he loved it and suggested it might be sent to a friend of his, Fred Rea in Perth, Western Australia as he is involved/connected with a project being put together in Tasmania. Little did I know how powerful this project was to be but I had a great conversation with Fred last week. Fred hails originally from Shandon St in Cork and now is very involved with the Irish Community in Western Australia,Perth in particular.There's a link to Fred's site in the links section. The project Fred is connected with is the singular vision of an amazing conceptual Artist in Hobart Tasmania by the name of Christina Henri.Christina has called the project Roses from the Heart(tm) and it is one of the most inspirational and powerful projects I've heard about in a long long time.Please visit her site for more information but having corresponded with her and chatted into the wee small hours (!) on Skype I'm convinced what Christina is doing is a deeply moving and very spiritual work. It appeals on so many levels and in essence what she is doing is according all of the Convict women of Ireland, the U.K.and Australia the respect and acknowledgement and humanity they were never given as prisoners and Christina is going further than that ,she is having a Bonnet made for EVERY SINGLE WOMAN that was transported in prison ships to Van Diemen's Land.-some 25,566 Bonnets..yep..25,566 Bonnets!! It doesnt get any more powerful and extraordinary in my book,this is a very special and profound gesture. I wrote a new song almost immediately on speaking with Christina as the story was so inspirational and gave the song to the Project as my contribution so far to the amazing work. The song is called Roses from the Heart(tm) as Christina very kindly gave it that title and it will be sung at various Roses from the Heart(tm) events next year .It is such an honour to be associated with this project and I urge anyone reading this to visit the site www.christinahenri.com.au and see for yourself what is happening and maybe offer some assistance if you can.Christina is coming to Ireland at the end of August 2010 and will be visiting Cobh and Cork City Gaol in Sunday's Well for a blessing of the Bonnets event and to "bring the girls home" as it were. It will be an amazing weekend as the Cork City Gaol are hosting Christina in tandem with launching a book by Australian author Suzanne Voytas about one particular ship of convict women that left Cork in 1828 ,the prison ship Elizabeth. 9 years of painstaking research has gone into the book and the subsequent contacting of descendants of those women and it is hoped some of those families will also be present at the events the same weekend at the City Gaol in Sunday's Well Cork. More info as I get it but please check out the sites mentioned.I will post an early version of the song shortly,a better recording will be done in the New Year but this will give a flavour of what is involved. Thanks for reading. Dave

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