Local musician selected for Health programme

Mullingar musician, Finn McGinty has been selected along with three others from across Ireland to partake in a pilot project called the European Music in Health Training Programme.The programme involves an innovative approach that employs music in healthcare contexts for cultural rather than clinical purposes. It aims to humanise the hospital environment for patients, visitors and staff.Originally from Coole in Castlepollard, Finn, who has been performing since the age of sixteen, has lived in Japan and the US, recording several albums there.He moved back to Mullingar in 2007, where he has been volunteering with the Irish Wheelchair Association in the Springfield Centre as a musician in residence.Finn first got interested in music and healthcare when he worked as a carer and musical companion to a man with brain injuries in the US for five years.'My job included reinforcing his various therapies and I also worked closely with his rehabilitation counsellor where I learned a lot about assistive technologies and ways of applying them,' says Finn.'Along the way I discovered that he used to play harmonica and so I added my guitar to the mix and everything took off from there. Once he rediscovered music and had someone help him he and I went on to record five CDs of his favourite music for his family, therapists and friends.'That experience had a profound affect on me as a musician and I have a great desire to continue working in this field.'Finn will start the programme this October, providing music in healthcare settings across four cities including Dublin, Paris, Manchester and Krakow.Each trip will be four days long and will include regular workshops, artistic residencies, patient bedside performances and mobile performances in various hospital and healthcare settings.The pilot training programme will be a collaboration between Music Network (Ireland), Musique et Santé (France), the Musical Academy of Krakow (Poland) and the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester (UK).The three other musicians chosen from Ireland for the European training programme are violinist Aingeala De Burca from Dublin, guitarist/singer Liam Merriman from Waterford, guitarist Joe Philpott from Cork.