Derry care worker Conor teams up with James to pen hit song

In November 2021, it came to Conor’s attention that a service user named James Moreland wanted to learn how to write a song.

The pair decided to get their thinking caps on and collaborate. As it was around the time of the festive season, they decided to pen a song about Christmas.

The title of the track is named ‘Fill Our Hearts with Kindness,’ and is very personal to James.

“The song reflects on how having family time is more important than presents around the tree.” said Conor.

“Like being kind to those around you, and how James was looking forward to seeing family who live in different countries as he hasn’t seen them in a long time due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. We even managed to mention his dogs within the song!

“We then decided to get the song professionally recorded, so we went to Studio 2 on the Skeoge road. Paddy Nixon was the recording engineer, he spent the afternoon with us making sure the song sounded perfect.

“Paddy did a stellar job, he was very patient and we couldn’t recommend him enough. We also wrote the lyrics out, printed them and framed it along with the song, which we burned onto a CD. We gave the final product to James and his family so they could hear it on Christmas day.

“James has surprised everyone with his songwriting skills! It was really enjoyable working with James on this project as it was a first for GlenOaks and who knows, James could be the next Ed Sheeran in the future!”

The song has been uploaded to the Western Trust’s YouTube channel this week. The video has already gained over 70o v iews. Conor believes that music activity has “endless benefits.”

“Music has such a positive impact for service users within health and social care,” he said.

“The opportunities will only grow now going forward. One of the things as a care assistant for me is being able to provide person centred/person led activities where they get to choose what they would like to do. I’m absolutely delighted to be in a job where I can make changes to people’s lives.”

You can listen to James and Conor’s song ‘Fill Our Hearts with Kindness’ at the following link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL1rpBwt7bs.