Orla O’Driscoll
KEEPING an active mind and a positive mental attitude is a recipe for a long and healthy life, according to a Portrane great grandmother,
Sybil Harte Weir has dedicated over 50 years of her life to animal rescue, with many of those years spent on the committee of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).
While Sybil still dedicates time to the cause of the SPCA, it is however, her latest musical endeavour which has brought attention to the retired accounts clerk.
“I believe that Fingal, is a beautiful place. I live in Portrane, on the coast, but the whole coast, north and south is so beautiful,” Sybil tells Northside People.
Sybil believes so passionately in the beauty of Fingal that she decided to show everyone around the world how beautiful it is.
“I started off by writing a little song,” she says. “I’m not a songwriter, but I have been involved in a musical society for a good number of years, and I was also part of the Baldoyle Musical Society for a long time.”
Sybil was struck by the fact that Fingal does not get as much attention as other areas.
“I don’t believe Fingal gets enough publicity,” she maintains. “Other parts of the country get promoted as tourist spots, but even southside Dubliners don’t know what we have on the northside.”
Once Sybil wrote the song, titled ‘Coast of Fingal’, she realised that it would also need a “little tune to go with it, and that took a while,” she says with great warmth.
And, being the determined lady, she is, Sybil wanted a pictorial representation, and a spot on Youtube to highlight her gem.
Using a camera her daughter and son had bought her some years ago she sought out the precious gems, which she feels are such an historic and representative element of Fingal.
Sybil says: “I knew that I wanted to take all of the photographs myself so that the photographs fit in with the song. There is just so much to see.”
Indeed, the finished song and photographs are such a treasure trove of hidden gems and well-known haunts that it is almost impossible not to be charmed, both by the video and its creator.
Sybil retired 15 years ago.
“I keep active, I like to have things to do, and I love to keep involved. It’s important at any age,” she says.
The last clip on the song features Stella’s Tower in Portrane, which Sybil reflects was once the supposed home of Stella (Esther Johnson), the muse of perhaps Ireland’s greatest literary writer, Dean Swift.
Stella was said to have been Swift’s muse, and though she was 14 years younger than Swift their story is remembered as star-crossed lovers whose paths were never destined to cross in a romantic fashion at least.
Sybil’s work is a canopy of beauty, a delight for any audience.
“I would love this to be an anthem for Fingal and to show people what we have to offer,” she adds.
•You can watch Coast of Fingal on Youtube, sung by Sybil Harte Weir with support from Tower Singing Circle, Donabate, here.
