Herald AM - Liam Lawton

Finding Peace
Liam Lawton on bringing comfort with his music

Liam Lawton is in a reflective mood. The priest from Edenderry, Co Offaly, who is a platinum award winning singer and composer of inspirational music, has been working on getting some balance into his life. And he feels he's now got it pretty much right.

"I'm composing again, after a gap of about two years," he says. "I am, hopefully, bringing out a new collection, and I have an upcoming concert.

"I am blessed with the support I've had from my superiors. I celebrate mass at a Poor Clare's Convent and help out at a parish every weekend. I like that. It keeps me in touch with people, and keeps me grounded."

Lawton doesn't look like anyone's idea of a priest. When we meet in the Westbury Hotel in Dublin, he's dressed in jeans and a leather jacket. His mobile rings constantly. He's reluctant, at first, to be photographed alongside the statute of Phil Lynott, but only because Lynott's music is of a different genre.

"Phil Lynott was hugely talented," he says. "And I love all music. I will listen to everything. Rock, blues, classical or world music. It depends on my mood."

SENT FROM ABOVE: Fr. Lawton loves all genres of music - rock, blues, classical or world music

The priest has had a number two hit in Norway. He was runner up in Eurosong in 1998; and he has performed with the'Chicago Symphony Orchestra on four occasions.

There is a certain melancholic nature to Liam's compositions that touches people greatly.

This has brought him close to the bereaved. 'The Cloud's Veil', for example, a song Liam had written when he was mourning his late uncle, was used extensively after 9/11. And not just at the funerals.

"It was used to help the healing process, too," he says, telling me of some children in the Bronx who were not collected at the end of that terrible day.

"I kept thinking about those children; and the following June a letter arrived from their teacher, telling me how much the song had helped the children," he says.

Another song, 'The Silence and The Sorrow', written after the Omagh bombing in 1998, was also used at the funeral of an ANC leader. Everywhere Liam goes, people stop him, to tell him how much comfort his songs have brought them.

Last year, Liam went to Africa to support the work that various charities were doing there.

He travelled from the desert region in the north to the south, and he visited slums in Nairobi as well. "We went to see an irrigation plant in the Turkana desert," he says. "The workers, women and men, were all tribal people. When they heard that I was a musician, 60 of them started to sing. It was beautiful. Amazing. They'd had no musical education, yet they were breaking into spontaneous harmony. They taught me the local song. And I shared my music with them. It was inspirational.

"I've written a piece, 'In Africa', based on percussion. I did a course on African drumming for a Masters of World Music in Limerick in 2000; but it's not until you get to Africa that you realise how important percussion is. It really tells a story," he says.

Shocked at the poverty and deprivation in Africa, and particularly the ravages of AIDS, Liam came back feeling burnt out. He says: "I have a real problem saying 'no 'to people. All the charities need help. How do you choose one cause above another? That really got to me. I had sleepless nights because of the guilt that I could not reach everyone."

Lawton does, though, reach so many with his songs. His fans are numerous and varied. After a concert in Washington city he was followed by a woman he mistook for Eva Longoria. "That freaked me! But it was just a beautiful woman who resembled her. She followed me into a shop to tell me about her son, who'd died at 19 in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan. 'The Cloud's Veil', played at his funeral, gave her a a sense of peace."

Liam's life path has been fraught at times. A twin, whose brother is a family man, he struggled with his decision to become a priest.

Then, working at Carlow Cathedral he missed his music terribly. He taught for some time, before giving that up for his music.

But the constant touring proved too much as well. So has he now found peace?

"I am not agonising about decisions like I was before," he says.

"I have been through stress and I have seen that life is not worth that. To write music, my mind needs to be at peace. I'm learning to appreciate the sound of silence, because out of that silence comes greater understanding."

When I ask for what he would like to be remembered, he pauses, then says: "If someone's life is better because of something I have done, then I will have achieved something."

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