My Life’s Journey

I was born and raised in the lovely town of Moneymore, Co Derry. I think I was put on this earth to be a helper. Primarily, that is how my life has panned out. Firstly, I am proud to say I have two sons, John and Joel and as my life has evolved, I appreciate how great an achievement it is to give birth and become a mother. Going back to education in my early thirties took me in the direction of teaching and counselling – both of which have been a tremendous source of fulfilment over the years. Growing up in the Corey family, music was like a saviour. It takes a while to appreciate the great gift that is passed on through singing and storytelling around the fire. Nowadays, I could not be without music in my life, it is in my heart and soul. Singing and sharing a stage with family and friends is one of the great joys in my life.

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“I could say I have had a musical journey. I’ve been singing all of my life. Even as a little girl I would have been singing in the concerts in the local hall. Our dad put the music into our hearts and music is a huge part of my life now.”

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“I think one of the very important and valuable aspects of my life is the solid upbringing we had. No upbringing is perfect but somehow or other the consistency and solidity of my background was and is invaluable. Mam was always there – cooking, dinner on the table, baking bread and knitting for us all. Dad was a very hardworking man with a great gift for songs and storytelling. Our parents, Francis and Susan Corey, were homemakers, devoted to our welfare and wellbeing. And that has left a foundation that somehow sits in my core. And I have it. It is not something anyone can take away. It’s there and it serves me.”

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“My dad’s sister, Aunt Annie, was also very important to me. I was her ‘wee girl’.  It was a different type of education with Annie, but ‘education’ it was. Aunt Annie would have had very little formal schooling. She had to take on the role of mother after our grandmother, Margaret Corey, died. Annie was looking after the family from a very young age. She too was a tremendous role model for me. She was hard working, liked to turn herself out well, loved her red high heels, red lipstick and a wee sherry.”

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“My mam was very interested in education and would have encouraged us all. Part of it was she would have loved to have had the opportunity for further study herself. Mam was a bright, intelligent woman in her own right and could see the value of education. So, in a sense she was the one who sowed the seed that got me back into education. I had a great need to fulfill something in me that had been left hanging in very early life.”

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“It is amazing how things evolve. I remember we were at a party many years ago and someone said to Gerry Tracey and me, ‘Sing us a song.’ This was quickly followed with ‘What are you doing sitting singing in a living room, you need to be out there.’ And so in the 1980’s we began weekly gigs on a Thursday night in the Castle Bar on Waterloo Street in Derry. From there the music developed into eight great years or so of singing to many audiences. We did television, radio, sang in the pubs, clubs, concerts and hotels across the North and Donegal too”.

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“Another significant moment that set my musical career in a different direction was when Eamonn Baker invited me to join singer/ songwriter Roy Arbuckle for a ‘Chicken Soup and Songs for the Soul’ event in St Augustine’s in May 2011. Roy invited me then to record a CD of his beautiful songs with him, called ‘Songs for the Soul’. A year or so later, near the end of 2012, Eamonn said, ‘Anne, you could do your own show.’ I can still hear those words ringing out loud and clear. Within two years I was doing the first of what became an annual show at the City of Derry Jazz Festival. Within another few years a group of us were appearing at Heaney Homeplace in concert, with our own brand of ‘Music, Songs and Poetry’. More recently, I have had the pleasure of singing with Ms Ursula McHugh in a Valentine’s Night Special. And, there is more to come!”

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“What I have somewhere inside of me is a great sense of purpose. And that sense of purpose fits very closely with the passion for what I’m doing. I have a passion for the books I had the privilege of writing that give voice to people who had experienced huge losses in life, for the counselling/therapeutic work I do, for the tremendous love of music, song and poetry. All of which I am deeply thankful for. The purpose doesn’t have to be cultivated. It is there. And if I swim against the tide and carve my own path it is because I believe that we have try to create the life experiences we want.  There is no other way to do it.”

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Carol Doey