These are tough economic times for Wall Street and Main Street alike, with music programs in schools feeling the most pinch. Our town in New Jersey just rejected the school budget and our music program was reduced to virtually nothing as a consequence.

Since Ireland’s economy is even worse than ours, it stands to reason that music education is in trouble there as well.

Throughout these 32 years, the McPeakes have inspired and taught to the highest standard in traditional music and produced the largest number of All-Ireland competitors, champions, and tutors and inspired many professional musicians in Belfast. Currently run by Francis McPeake IV, the school unfortunately is under threat due to lack of funds. As such a “Mosaic of Support” has been created.

Stars are coming out of the woodwork to lend support. Michael Flatley said, “I wish The Francis McPeake School of Music the very best of luck.  The music of our heritage is a very important part of our lives; it influences us when we’re young and is invaluable as we get older.”

The McPeake Family started playing music, in Ireland, in 1904. The family were at the forefront of the revival of Irish and folk music throughout the 1950s and 1960s.

Francis McPeake I penned the folk anthem “Will Ye Go Lassie Go,” a/k/a “Wild Mountain Thyme,” in the early 1950s.

With such a pedigree, the McPeakes were approached in 1977 to host tin whistle lessons for six weeks, to give the youth of Belfast a cultural alternative to the civil unrest that was a part of everyone’s life in Northern Ireland at that time. An amazing music school grew out of those lessons and 32 years later, the McPeakes are still teaching traditional music.

Along with Flatley, other internationally acclaimed celebrities including the Pogues, Moya Brennan, Phil Coulter, Ash, Therapy, Brian Kennedy, and Sir James and Lady Galway, have come together to lead in supporting the future of the school by purchasing tiles in the Mosaic of Support, a campaign that calls on local, national and international artists, businesses and music lovers to purchase tiles within an original mosaic art piece.

The mosaic will contain 3,000 individual tiles. Each supporter who purchases a tile (or two!) will have their logo or name put on the tile. The cost of one tile is $200 and will help to secure the financial future of the school.

Francis McPeake IV is also producing a documentary called Are Ya Goin’ to McPeakes Tonight?, the story of how the Francis McPeake School of Music has changed people, culture and Belfast since 1977 and the resulting social impact if it were to close.

It will examine the extraordinary influence the school has had on the lives of the students, how Belfast has been changed through their music and highlight the many professional musicians and friends of the school and the professional traditional musicians the school has produced.

This is a cause we can and should get behind to ensure the further development of our culture. To become a supporter of the Francis McPeake School of Music simply log onto www.francismcpeake.com.