LOCKDOWN SONG: Killarney Community College teacher Mike Lynch recorded a song with his family to raise funds for University Hospital Kerry.

By Michelle Crean

One Killarney teacher didn’t let the lockdown boredom set in once school was over as he and his family recorded a song - social distance style – for charity.

Mike Lynch, who has been teaching Maths and PE in Killarney Community College for the last 10 years, teamed up with 15 members of his musical family, including his daughter Emma who has just finished Sixth Year at the school, with each videoing themselves singing at home.

The family chose Michael Jackson’s ‘We are the World’ and re-wrote it to ‘'We are the World - COVID-19', changing the lyrics to suit the present situation so many have found themselves in.

And they also added a GoFundMe page: ‘Lynch Family Support for UHK Tralee’ with a target of €500 to donate as a thank you to staff at University Hospital Kerry who are working on the frontline. However, with almost 40,000 views and hundreds of shares online, the video, individually posted up online by the family members, has so far raised approximately €1,400 with donations still coming in.

“It was my brother Jerry who came up with the idea, he was the brains behind it all,” Mike, speaking to the Killarney Advertiser this week, said.
“My sister’s wedding last year was when we all sang together as a family for the first time and Jerry wanted us all to record a couple of lines for this. Then we started writing our own lyrics, there was 15 of us in total including my parents John and Lena and their grandchildren.”

Mike, who lives in Tralee, comes from a very musical family with many of them members of Tralee Musical Society.
He said that they’re overwhelmed with the response to the five minute-long project.

“It wasn’t easy doing it individually as Jerry had to learn new editing skills! It was great craic."

For the end of the video the family are united to complete the harmony of the song but remained socially distanced from each other.

"We had a target of €500 to raise and are overwhelmed with the response so far. They’re our own local frontline workers and deserve a bit of a dig out.”