A SINGER from Kerry has released a song which features the voice of his younger brother who sadly passed away this year.
Jack Patrick Geraghty, who is from Killarney but who has been living in London since 2017, released the song 'Christmas Without You' this week, having originally written it in 2009.
It was a song that he and his brother Thomas had always planned to record together, Jack Patrick told the Irish Post.
"I came over in 2017, and worked throughout Christmas each year so it got more and more difficult to get over to Ireland," he said.
"I didn't actually see Thomas since he was eleven, but we always spoke about this song and said we would record it together."
Thomas was tragically killed when the car he was driving went out of control and struck a tree in the early hours of Wednesday 7 July.
However, just weeks after he passed away, a friend of Thomas' contacted Jack Patrick and sent him a video.
"It was a video taken a few weeks before he died of Thomas singing the song," Jack Patrick said.
"It was the weirdest thing because it was nowhere near Christmas. On the video I can't actually see him, it was just his hand holding the lyrics I had given him, and there wasn't a crinkle in the sheet at all. He must have kept it in serious condition."
LISTEN TO THE SONG BELOW:
The lyrics of the song centres on missing a loved one at Christmas, something Jack Patrick believes everyone can relate to.
He wrote it when he was fifteen, and it has now been released just weeks before Thomas would have turned the same age.
"I'm the oldest of four boys, and music was all I ever wanted to do. Danny and Michael are into sport, and then Thomas got the music and the sport all in one. He was the golden child there's no denying it!" Jack Patrick said.
"I'm well able to mix tracks together and things like that, but I put the drums and the guitars together first and I purposely left his voice until the end.
"I knew the parts of the song that I wanted to sing and I knew the parts that I wanted him to respond to. When I heard the whole thing together, with no effects or reverb added, I was honestly just waiting for him to say "that sounded good Jack." It was magic."
He continued:
"I've been playing for a lot of Christmas parties over the years and I could never really understand why people would be sad at Christmas time. It's all lights and presents and drinks and parties, but it's only now that I realise there is another side to Christmas.
"Now it's Christmas without Thomas, and for a lot of other people it's Christmas without their loved ones because of lockdowns or other reasons. There's not one person in the world, no matter where you're from, that doesn't miss someone at Christmas for some reason or another.
Jack Patrick said he was very nervous about releasing the song.
"I was thinking that people might think it was a weird thing to do because Thomas is dead and we should just let him rest in peace, but all the platforms and comments have been about how it has helped others."
He first sent the song to his mother Julie, and he says it felt like one hundred years before she replied.
"With her, I knew she'd either love it or it would be more like 'don't dare release that.'
"In fairness, her response was that it was special, and the reaction from then has been brilliant. Radio Kerry covered it first, and it hasn't really stopped since.
Thomas and Jack Patrick Healy.
Jack Patrick's father is singer Ger Healy 'Singing Jarvey' who always told him to do ten percent of his gigs for charity.
"I used to always carry Thomas to Killorglin in Kerry to raise money for the Hospice Foundation there every Christmas.
"This song is free and it's not for charity, but I still feel like a lot of people will be touched by it."
Jack Patrick is not coming home for Christmas, explaining that he thinks it might be easier for the family if there are two seats missing at the table.
"If we were all together we'd all be looking at the empty space, and I think by putting more absence into the room, it might help them," he said.
"As a family people would be wondering how we're going to cope because one of us is in London and another has passed away, and they might wonder how we're going to manage over the Christmas.
"But this just goes to show that we're fine and this song is binding us together even though we are apart."
