Page 77 - Kieran Ballah Remembers M.J

ISSUE : Issue 48

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1988/6/1

singxng, coming on the front of the al? tar, and turn around and genuflect, and go up the aisle, go up to the choir loft. So every 11 o'clock mass started in Sacred Heart Church on Sunday with the boys coming up singing. Big on ceremony. And at 11 o'clock mass on Sunday was men choir, with oh, 13 men, I suppose, and the boy choir had 30, 40 boys, singing the full Latin mass. 10:15 mass was the women's choir, which he also directed and worked with during the week- -anothe r ni ght of practice a week. He had a night of the men, a night of the women, two days with the boys, plus Sunday evening benedic? tion- -he had to be every Sunday for that. Plus every mass--every morning of his life for 25 years he sang the mass in the Sacred Heart Church. Every morning. He missed about three in his lifetime. And if they had two funerals, he had to stay and sing the funerals. So he was a very busy man in the church part! You know? If he'd never get to Heav? en, nobody'11 get there! And he'd drag--I can remember fond memories of Dad dragging me out of bed in the morn? ings , 'cause I sang with him a lot. The morning mass was at 6:15 in the Sacred Heart Church then, and 7. And what young boy wants to get up and sing at 6 o'clock in the morning, and sing mass? Oh! No back? ground, no piano, no organ. Not in the mornings, for Dad and I, when we sang mass. Oh, he used to drag me out a lot, to sing with him, like, as an accompany. Ballah (top left) and the Sacred Heart Church Choir, circa 1944 So he was bus,y with the choirs, very busy. And had good choirs. Top-notch choirs; very good choirs. (Did you ever sing anywhere else?) Yeah, well, as a young boy--I was a boy soprano-- I sang a lot as solo work. And then as a young man. But Dad would travel all over. I would sing with him sometimes. We'd sing at the Savoy sometimes. He'd do his part of the show--he might have 3 or 4 numbers to do in the show. And then I'd do one number with him. He would do heavy baritone work in those days. Numbers--I don't think numbers, any that you'd recognize. I don't even remember them. There was one from "Showboat," that number "Shortnin' Bread," those kind of things, you know. And "Lindy Lou," and a lot of old Negro spirituals. Dad said he never sang much operatic work on stage, when he was asked to perform. No one wanted to hear that stuff. He would sing light stuff that they liked to hear. .''SI We're MacLeod-Lorway Insurance 215 Charlotte St. P.O. Box 1354 Sydney, N.S. B1P6K3 FAX # 539-4064 CALL US NOW and discover why more Cape Breton residents are insured through MacLeod-Lorway than any other independent agency. We represent more than half of Canada's leading insurance companies. Call or visit one of our 12 licensed agents for pre-purchase counselling. MacLeod-Lorway offers personal and commercial lines including home owners and tenants packages and mobile home, travel, auto, builder's risk, commercial fire, crime, commercial liability, marine, bonding, business interruption and boiler and machinery. 24 hour phone - call collect 539-6666

Cape Breton's Magazine