It is typical of west Cork that there should be a Castletownshend/ Bombay connection resulting in a world-class concert with English musicians in Rosscarbery cathedral. . . The concert is the brainchild of Timothy MacDermot-Roe, the owner of Moylurg Antiques in Castletownshend and Jane Hancock who commutes between west Cork and Bombay, where her banker husband, Frank Hancock, is based. The pair cooked up the idea of having a concert in St Fachtna's Cathedral in aid of the Prem Dan slum school in Bombay, where Jane works, after hearing Jonathan Freeman-Attwood, an old friend of the Hancocks, playing his trumpet at Timothy's place two years ago.
Jonathan, who is also the vice-principal and director of studies at the Royal Academy of Music, is a great West-Corkophile and was happy to return to play a programme of baroque music together with organist Colm Carey. Last year the concert took place in Castletownshend as part of its five-week music festival and was judged such a success that they moved the venue to Rosscarbery cathedral. It was full to capacity on Tuesday evening with people arriving from New York, England and Dublin as well as from Cork. Annabel Davis-Goff came from New York with her daughter, Jennifer Davis-Goff; Dr Lilith Lamont came from Chichester to support his sister - Jane Hancock (who was wearing the traditional Indian salwar kameez) - while architect Sam Stephenson and his wife Caro- line Sweetman Stephenson arrived from Dublin. Other members of the west Cork set attending were Angela Eborell, Eddy and Jacqueline Weij; Liz Best; Philip Wall Morris, and Patrick O'Brien.