Across The Bridge Of Hope

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In August 1998, a bomb exploded in a shopping area in Omagh, Northern Ireland, killing 29 people and injuring 200 more. One of the fatal victims was a 12-year-old boy named Shaun McLaughlin, who wrote a precociously poignant antiwar poem entitled “Across the Bridge of Hope.” This tragic irony is, sadly, a recurring theme in the saga of Northern Ireland’s violence, so it wasn’t difficult to compile 12 songs, from some of Ireland’s most famous musicians, that triumphantly honor those who suffered or died in Omagh. The CD opens with actor Liam Neeson somberly reciting Seamus Heaney’s poem The Cure at Troy and winds down as he reads the album’s namesake prose. Sinead O’Connor croons proudly and reverently atop a scuffling, soft-shoed hip-hop rhythm in “Chiquitita.” Boyzone and the Corrs’ contributions cast off any dismissible pop stardom in this context, with songs that sweetly honor their lost countrymen and -women. The gentle wake of Van Morrison’s acoustic version of “The Healing Game” pacifies a grieving soul. U2’s “Please” is direct, angered, and entirely devastating. Throughout, the songs embody the inextinguishable spirit of the Irish–vivacious, stalwart, enduring, faithful. For every fire, there is always the rain, and this CD is a magnificent cloud. –Beth Massa