Healthcare worker aims to lift morale though Frontline Choir
A Mullingar healthcare worker was aiming to lift the morale of his colleagues when he got involved with David Brophy’s Frontline Choir.
Richie Geoghegan, who works in the Emergency Department at the Midland Regional Hospital, Mullingar, is well used to performing and when the opportunity to contribute to this project came up, he was delighted to take it.
Richie said he wanted to express publicly his thoughts on David Brophy’s Frontline Choir because he sees daily how tough dealing with the pandemic has been on all the staff in Mullingar, and he thought the project would be “a great boost to all the people that are still on the frontline”.
“We always had a tough job in A&E, long before Covid, but I’m working with young people, 25 or 26 years of age, who step up when it comes to facing Covid and dealing with the bad cases in ICU, and it’s amazing to work with them, and it’s amazing to meet people from other hospitals – doctors, consultants, porters, clerical staff – who are doing the same thing.
“At the moment, working in Mullingar, it is stressful, there’s no denying that, everybody is a little bit burned out, and morale is low, because everybody has had 18 months of this, but they’re still stepping up.
“When the call comes, they’re not found wanting, and it is amazing to work with them all in Mullingar.
“Being in the choir brought a bit of normality to each of us. We all have Covid in common, but we all have music and singing in common too – it brought us together for a different reason, and it was great to have that bit of normality.”
Among the stars Richie met during recording for the show were Aslan and Paul Brady.
About David Brophy’s Frontline Choir
David Brophy’s Frontline Choir follows on from the success of The High Hopes Choir, The Choir of Ages and David Brophy’s Unsung Heroes, and the final episode of the three-part series is being broadcast this evening one RTÉ 1 (6.30pm).
(See this week's Westmeath Examiner, out on Tuesday, for a longer version of this story.)