Tonga to commemorate Omagh victims

When the South Pacific kingdom of Tonga broadcasts its new year celebrations to the world, Ireland will be at the forefront of its ceremonies.

Tonga, which - despite the claims of other parts of the south Pacific - maintains that the first sunrise of the new millennium will come up off its shores, will remember victims of the Omagh bombing and pay tribute to the peace process in song from the capital Nuku'Alofa.

Shortly before midnight to night (10 a.m. today Irish time), the Royal Maopa choir of Tonga and a Swedish choir from Lulea University's School of Music will sing the words of the poem written by 12-year-old Sean Mc Laughlin with five friends before he was killed in the bombing on August 15th, 1998.

Orange and Green

It does not matter

United now we shatter our dream

Scatter the seeds of peace

So we can travel hand in hand

Across the bridge of hope.

Making it a choral event for the millennium was the idea of Erik Westberg, professor of the Lulea school of music in Sweden, who heard Sean's poem broadcast on the night of the bomb.

A Swedish conductor composed the music and the song will sung over all the time zones of the millennium day by some 175 choirs from 50 countries.

Erik's 12-member Swedish choir will travel after the New Year's Eve celebrations in Tonga to Samoa, some 600 miles northeast of Tonga but a day behind, where they will sing it again to mark the end of the millennium celebrations.

All 175 choirs will receive a diploma, whose signatories include the King of Tonga, Taufa'ahau Toupou IV; the President, Mrs McAleese; Queen Silvia of Sweden, and the UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan.

The diploma includes a message from Mrs McAleese: "We hope that human voices, connected in a global ring of love, will mark the dawn of a new era in which the dream of peace and friendship can be realised."

At the Tongan ceremonies the Hallelujah Chorus, a church service and a message from the king will be part of the kingdom's events for the millennium.

They also include a street party for an expected 10,000 people, marching bands and Polynesian dancing through the night before the king's party sails off in the traditional Tongan boat to see the sunrise, expected in Tonga at 6.14 a.m. (4.14 p.m. Dec 31st Irish time) from the island of 'Eua, an hour's journey from Tongaputa main island.

For Tonga, an archipelago of 170 islands, a real priority is to be the first nation to see the new millennium.

The country, which lies southeast of Fiji and almost in the centre of the Pacific between Australia and South America, has been promoting itself for tourists as the land "where the new millennium begins".

There has been something of a phoney war between the islands of the Pacific. Kiribait, north of Tonga, moved the international date line forward by 20 minutes. Fiji moved its clock forward one hour to be at the same time as Tonga. However, Tonga's monarch was having none of it and moved Tongan time another hour forward, 14 ahead of GMT.

Tonga's deputy director of tourism, Mr Sione Maolo, said it was not about politics. "All it means is that God will hear our prayer one hour before Fiji."

For Dublin man Philip Kilmartin, it will certainly be a millennium celebration with a difference. Originally from the Navan Road, the 1986 Irish national swimming champion is here to meet his Tongan in-laws for the first time.

Now living in the US where he and his wife Valenilua Holi were married, Philip will be the guest of honour at a special feast this New Year's Eve.

His relations will kill and roast two pigs on a spit, and prepare lobster and a number of local dishes in his honour. His family, including the couple's two-year-old daughter, Rebecca, his brother Dave and a number of Irish friends, will also eat the Tongan equivalent of corned beef and cabbage with potatoes, yams and lupulu - corned beef wrapped in leaves.

The millennium has been hyped, people say, and maybe it is just another sunset and sunrise. However, if moving from one year to another is going to be miserable, what better place to be depressed than on a sunny tropical island with white sandy beaches and coconut trees.