Union Hall’s Richie ‘signs’ hit for The Coronas – and they love it!

A WEST Cork father-of-two has created a music video original with his sign language version of The Coronas latest single called ‘Lost in the thick of it’.

And the band are delighted with it and have posted it to social media.

Richie O’Mahony, from Union Hall, is a big fan of The Coronas and when he decided to use the group’s new single as a sign language teaching aid for two children he never imagined the impact this ‘lockdown’ project would have.

‘My parents are both deaf and I want to make sure that their grandchildren can communicate with them, so I’ve been teaching them sign language for a while now,’ Richie told The Southern Star.

‘I’ve always thought that it would be great if someone did sign language to music lyrics and when The Coronas released the new single my daughter, Bea, who’s four, said that we should sign the lyrics. And that’s where it started.’

So, when The Coronas released a video to promote their new single, Richie and Bea decided to create their own video and to sign the lyrics.

‘The video is perfect for sign language as they are just sitting in front of the camera,’ Richie said.

‘So, I just sat down, with the TV behind and above me and signed the lyrics as the video played.’

However, the project didn’t end there, as Richie decided to send the video to The Coronas as a ‘thank you’ for their music during the pandemic.

‘I sent the video and said: “Here’s a sign language version of your new single, I hope you enjoy it,” and I left it at that,’ Richie said.

Almost immediately The Coronas got back to Richie asking for permission to put the video out on their social media.

‘It was amazing the way it took off,’ Richie said.

‘I was blown away by all the kind words and the positive support.’

Given the incredible feedback he’s got, Richie is now thinking about signing other songs.

‘It’s wonderful that the video has been so well received and if this raises awareness then I’m delighted,’ Richie said.