'A Song for Gaza' smashes Medical Aid for Palestinians fundraising target

Derry singer Sarah McGarrity has smashed her JustGiving online fundraiser for Medical Aid for Palestinians.

Inspired by her grandfather, the legendary Paddy Bogside, Sarah composed, recorded and released ‘A Song for Gaza - Let the Children Live’ raising more than double her initial £1,000 target in just five days.

Speaking to The Derry News, a modest Sarah praised the “brilliant singing” of the St Eugene’s Primary School choir which accompanied her. She also thanked its musical director Ms McNutt and principal Ms Duffy, for their support.

“I have been singing at funerals and weddings around the town for years with my friends Isobel Caldwell and Thomas Hutchman who were also involved in ‘A Song For Gaza’," she added.

Singer Sarah Garrity with her husband, Frankie, and their children.

“I have always known about Palestine. Our family had always supported Palestine even before this war broke out.

“My daddy, Raymond Griffin, would have been quite involved politically when he was living and he always supported Palestine. So, we grew up knowing about Palestine.

“I have three children, a wee girl of five, a wee girl of three and a child of one. At the start of the war I found it overwhelming; it was all a bit too much. I couldn’t bear the images. But, all the time I was thinking about my granda and his point of view on things.

“When he worked in Saudi Arabia and all those places, it was a major risk for him to take at the time. And I thought I would love to be able to do something even humanitarian wise but that wasn’t possible for me with a young family, so I started to think about how I could tap into my strengths.

“I just started jotting down a song. It is from a mother’s perspective - a mother speaking about her children - because that is the stage I am at at the minute and I can relate to how awful it must be.

“‘Song For Gaza’ begins: ‘In the dust where the playground should be, a mother sings to her child she can’t see. Smoke in the sky where the stars used to shine. The world turns away saying, it isn’t mine,’” said Sarah.

The event which sparked Sarah into releasing the song was the arrest of volunteers on the Madleen Freedom Flotilla.

She said: “I thought what harm can the children of Gaza do that they have to starve them of baby food and those poor mothers probably don’t have enough nutrition to feed their own babies.

“I just wanted to do something to help out. I jotted the song down and I thought about different melodies. Then Thomas very kindly came into the studio and he recorded it with me. We looked at it and rearranged it.

“I really wanted children to sing in it and because my wee girl is at St Eugene’s I approached Ms Duffy. Thankfully she was in complete agreement. She absolutely loved the song.

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“I went into the school and Ms McNutt had the wee choir in the assembly hall. We went over the song for 15 minutes and we recorded it in voicenote and that was it, I was away in half an hour. It was no bother to the wee ones who learned the song right away.

“It was also very interesting because whenever Ms McNutt explained what they were actually doing you could see in their wee eyes they understood and had heard what was going on in Gaza.

“I was very conscious about exposing them to too much. You don’t really want wee tots exposed to everything but it is important for them to know what’s going on in the world,” said Sarah, who added she was “really, really delighted with the result”.

Donations to Sarah’s online fundraiser can be made by clicking: JustGiving - Sarah's fundraiser for Medical Aid for Palestinians.