Carol Keogh has joined Lisa Hannigan in releasing a Christmas single in solidarity with the Home Sweet Home initiative. You can name your price for the poignant 'Lights Of Apollo', which finds her joined by such seasoned Dublin musos as Binzer Brennan and Gavin Glass. As Ms. H says, "Power to the people!"

"I started writing a song about driving around in my car at Christmas and how, despite some tough times this year, I'm still fortunate that I'm not sleeping in it," Carol reflects. "Or worse, on the street without any shelter whatsoever. And I stopped there... a few lines in, because it just seemed so hopelessly negative and didactic. Telling people the terrible stuff that they already know and are seeing every day. Then the story broke about Apollo House and while I was preparing for a live radio session I had been asked to do with soul sister Grainne Hunt, this song just sort of wrote itself. I played it to Grainne, we did it at the session and then the mad idea presented itself to try and get it professionally recorded and out to the world in the lead up to Christmas.

"So, I threw it out on social media to see if anyone would be up for doing it. The first person to step up to the plate was Gavin Glass, a musician and songwriter who offered the services of his Orphan Recording studios. Grainne was on board and between myself and Gavin we gathered a troupe of musicians who were willing to give their time and skills for free, at short notice and at one of the busiest times of the year for everyone. Binzer Brennan on drums, Travis Lyon on electric and pedal steel guitar, Graham Bolger on bass, Paul Smyth on Rhodes, Gavin on piano and myself and Grainne on singing duties. We started at 6pm on Tuesday 20th, worked into the early hours, Gavin went home to get some sleep and went back in to mix on the 21st, and by 6pm that evening (i.e. within 24 hours) we had a mastered track.

"Like everyone else who has been moved by the events at Apollo House, we all just wanted to do something to help," Carole continues. "The songwriter in me responded with a song, because that's something I can do, but the message really came from the working administrator (also me) who commutes from outside the county border because she can't afford to live within it any more. Who, despite having a decent steady job and without any extravagance, often finds herself struggling to keep the head above water and sometimes has to rely on friends and family to get through the month and to the next pay packet. Who is horribly aware of the spiralling problem of homelessness all over this country, where the visible numbers of people without shelter on the streets of our cities, towns, suburbs and villages are just the thin end of the wedge. And who thinks to herself, 'That could so easily be me'.

"We're not necessarily expecting people to buy this song, although any proceeds will be promptly donated to the HomeSweetHome campaign. I know that those who care are already doing what they can. A lot of folk are, like me, time and cash poor, so can't necessarily give much of either. But as Glen Hansard said on the steps of the High Court, the conversation has started. It's a necessary conversation and one that has wide-reaching implications for everyone in our society. All of the musicians and technicians that gave their time and skills to getting this recording made want to be part of that conversation. We are calling ourselves The Homefire Collective. Whatever happens now with Apollo House, following yesterday's High Court ruling, and what is I suppose a merciful stay of execution for the current 40 residents until early in the New Year, I hope that a movement has started. A movement that rejects blind and immobilising protocols. A movement that responds to human crisis with common sense acts of kindness that only a very confused world would define as radical.

"And it is a confused world, in which most of us are looking for comfort, especially at this emotionally heightened time of year with its mix of ancient Solstice traditions and modern customs of trade. As we see the queues growing at the day centres for Christmas food parcels; when we know there are people who came here under horrific circumstances and are facing into another year of Direct Provision; as more come seeking desperate asylum while their surviving loved ones, forced from their once beautiful cities, remain terrorised inside the Syrian border; as the Fairytale of New York becomes a pledge to form a bulwark against the threat of tidal hatred; as we feel our common humanity squeezed by the death-grips of corporate interests - WE HAVE TO TRY TO KEEP THE LIGHTS ON. We know that in living with 'austerity' we are paying en masse for the insane gambling habits of an elite. We know that in the relatively short history of this State, things have taken a dramatic turn in the wrong direction and we have to get all hands back on the wheel. But we can't take it all on at once - if we only look at the bigger picture all we can see is the darkness at its edges. So we do what we can do in doing the NEXT thing and keep our human values close.

"Keep our small but vital home fires lit and invite in the neighbours, whoever they may be."Lights of Apollo by The Homefire Collective