Wilson's acts impress in Cruinniú na nÓg shows

Two impressive music acts from Wilson’s Hospital School featured in this year’s Cruinniú na nÓg, the annual national day of free creative activities for children and young people under the age of 18.

Amplifi is the brainchild of Castlepollard producer and rapper Jack Lawlor. The video for his single Rocky is on the Garageland Ireland social media site. Amplifi performed live at the Cruinniú event in Ashbourne, County Meath.

“It was a great event. School exams are finished now so I have time to concentrate on my music,” said Jack.

HiT were not be able to perform live on this occasion. Half of the youthful group were tied up with their Junior Cycle exams, and the rest were in the Gaeltacht.

Songwriter Sophie Whelan said: “Our This World video for Cruinniú will feature during the online television show with RTÉ, so all is not lost and we will be recording new material over the holidays so we have that to look forward to.”

“We are a bit disappointed not to be playing live again,” said singer Sarah Monaghan. “Our other gigs went really well this year,” added vocalist Victoria Ogunleye.

It is hoped that local musicians Tara Ralph (violin, Castlepollard) and Melissa Power (bass, Mullingar) will be contributing to the efforts that Niamh Grier, Jane Duggan and Vaughan Sheehan already bring to the HiT collective.

HiT evolved from an after-school activity in Wilson’s Hospital School with teacher Gavan Kierans.

Amplifi (Jack Lawlor) worked on the HiT project as producer and mixer, and both HiT and Amplifi performed at the final of the Cavan Win Big secondary school song contest in April.