Baltimore packing 100 years of happiness into 10-minute video

BY JACKIE KEOGH

THE fifth ‘Happy in Baltimore’ video, which was launched last week, is not just a celebration of community life, it also honours the 100-year history of the village’s RNLI.

There were as many people featured in the 10-minute video as there were packed into Youen Jacob’s bar in Baltimore for the launch party recently. 

Sharon Rose McKeever – who is part of the ‘Happy’ team that organised all five videos, including the first, which was set to the sounds of Pharrell Williams’ song of the same name – said: ‘It’s all a bit of fun.’ But there is a positive spin-off for the village too because since its release, Cork Culture has contacted the happy team to ask if the video can be included in its Culture Night programme on September 21st next.

The latest video opens with a boy of five and the scenes continue in 10-decade increments, with each clip featuring the music and the fashions of the era.

Sharon said the first video in 2014 was done to ‘lift the mood’ after a particularly bad storm and it was so well received that they decided to do it again, and again.Locally, the volunteer crew of the RNLI lifeboat are held in such high esteem that everyone wanted to come out and support this particular video.

The sense of community and fun is evident from start to finish and despite the period clothes and heavy disguises there’s plenty of entertainment to be had in guessing who’s who and looking out for familiar faces.

The video is just one of the ways that the arrival of “The Shamrock” lifeboat in the coastal community is being honoured. 

There will be plenty more celebrations closer to the official commemoration date of September 8th 1919.