Priest from Ireland to Play Carnegie Hall

By Linda Busetti

Irish singer-songwriter Liam Lawton will perform an Evening of Celtic Spiritual Music at Carnegie Hall on Wednesday, March 21. Fourteen American church choirs will accompany Lawton, an ordained Catholic priest of the Diocese of Kildare, Ireland, who performs under his given name.

In Celtic spirituality, Lawton says, there is the recognition of “the omnipresence of God in simple things….There is a respect for God in nature. There is humility in Celtic spirituality. You recognize God in the rising of the sun; see the beauty of the world.”
God is in the beginning and ending of each day with a blessing, “Go mbeannai Dia duit.”

Liam Lawton

Themes of love, time and nature are woven through the lyrics of Lawton’s songs. His melodies, like mist rising on an Irish morning, paired with instruments such as uilleann pipes, set the mood. Love is presented in “different layers,” between a man and woman – “And I wish that you could know, Despite our falls and fears, You brighten up my darkest night” – or God’s unconditional love.

Other songs have been influenced by Irish history or recent world events.

This is Lawton’s first visit to New York, but his grandfather came before him – to work on the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. His grandfather returned to Ireland when he inherited the family farm. Lawton’s grandmother sang traditional Irish music and his grandfather played the concertina. His father grew up in a gaeltacht (Irish-speaking) area of East Cork, so Lawton was surrounded by the Irish language and music throughout his childhood. Lawton grew up in Offaly and has a twin brother Tom.

Lawton studied the arts at Maynooth College near Dublin. His musical career began when he won a college songwriting contest.

About that time, he also “got the theology bug,” he says.

Lawton was ordained in 1982. He spent seven years as a parish priest in Carlow, during which time he wrote no music.

The bishop of his diocese sent him “back to university for more studies” after which he taught in a boarding school. This left him “free at the weekends” and he began writing again. His first collection of liturgical music was published in Ireland in 1996 by Veritas. Also in that year, Trocaire, an aid agency of the Catholic Church in Ireland, commissioned him to write a piece commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Irish Famine. “The Darkest Hour” is based on the diary of a parish priest, who had lived through the famine in Sligo. He wrote about walking to church on a Sunday morning and passing 14 starving women and children in the ditches and finding one old man at the gate, too weak to stand, who had been given some bread. The priest wrote about how hard it was to say the “Glory to God” when he was surrounded by such despair.

Publishing Contract

In 1997, the Ancient Order of Hibernians in Minneapolis was preparing to celebrate an anniversary and invited Lawton to perform. That success resulted in a contract to write liturgical music for GIA Publishing. His works have been published widely in church hymnals.

Soon after, EMI Ireland signed him to a recording contract. His first recording was in Gaelic. Consequent recordings have gone multi-platinum in Ireland. More recently, Lawton recorded his popular works during an outdoor spectacular set in Dublin’s docklands.

Lawton tries to bring the audience “into my world.” He wants to share with the “Irish Diaspora” in this country “something about their own culture.” He also hopes to share his love of melody, “the gift that God has given me.” Lawton says there is a “huge need for beauty” in society today. People have “lost their sense of mystery and beauty.”

Personal tragedy or his reaction to world events can also inspire a song.

After losing his uncle in a car accident, Lawton wrote about the sun which returns after “the dark cloud” passes. He had no idea that “The Cloud’s Veil” would comfort so many others at memorial services after 9/11.

“Far Beyond” from his recent CD, “Time,” was written for a memorial service for Mother Teresa held at Knock in Ireland. Words from one of Mother Teresa’s last letters inspired his lyric, “I am thirsting, I am blind, I am stumbling, hear my cries, I am lonely filled with fear…Far beyond all dreaming, Far beyond the place of despair…You will find his love if you dare, Far beyond the riches that fade, Far beyond this very day.”

“How Can I Heal Your Broken Heart” was Lawton’s response to the tsunami disaster. After seeing a man on TV desperately trying to show reporters photos of his missing 10-year-old son, Lawton wrote, “See in disbelief, the face of untold grief, Searching eyes to find, the picture of a child…How can I heal your broken heart, When all of the pieces are fractured apart, And though it may seem we are worlds afar, I pray you find someone, To hold you in the dark.”

His music and his priesthood are interwoven – “I can’t divorce one from the other.” He said it is “getting easier” to balance his musical career and priesthood by “surrounding myself with people who are supportive.”
But he said he does need to search out quiet time. For inspiration and for meditation he goes to Glendalough in the Wicklow Mountains, where St. Kevin founded a monastery in the sixth century.

“I drive up the mountains and into the valley. It’s like leaving the world behind. It’s a sacred place,” he said.
“In Medieval times the Church was the patron of the arts and reflected the beauty of God,” Lawton says.
He hopes that “people will be touched in some way” by his music. Lawton says that before each performance he prays that people who may be suffering a loss or depression will find solace.

Tickets are $35 and can be purchased at 1-800-727 1999 ext.174.

back to top