In her programme note on Lidice, Mrs Emer Bailey wrote: "No evidence was ever found to support the claim that the inhabitants of the Czech town of Lidice were in anyway involved in the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich. But in an act of reprisal, on June 10 1942, the town together with all its male inhabitants, was obliterated by the Nazis. The rest of the villagers were sent to concentration camps.

Alan Bush was so horrified by this appalling tragedy that he composed Lidice in 1947 (with words by his wife and librettist, Nancy) for the Workers' Music Association Singers whom he conducted for many years. English composer Bernard Stevens, was assistant conductor at the time and recalls as one of the memorable experiences of his life, the occasion in 1947 when the choir sang the piece on the site of the destroyed town. He describes Lidice as a masterwork that expresses all that we felt on that awe-inspiring occasion, comparable to Shostakovich's memorial to the victims of the destruction of Dresden in the Eighth String Quartet."

The work begins in a sombre mood, describing the scene of devastation once the soldiers had gone. "Silence had returned to Lidice" with its "smould'ring wood" and "shattered stone". Then the tension slowly begins to build to a climax: "An unquenched spirit stirs and springs...to live and burn again". The work ends with a mood of quiet determination reminiscent of the opening bars.

Nancy Bush's poem expresses most clearly the anguish and horror of that terrible scene:

"When the last marching step had gone, and the hands, clenched in agony, the outstretched hands were motionless, silence returned to Lidice.
Voiceless, the threads of smoke crept up from smould'ring wood and shattered stone. The charred beam falling to the ground alone disturbed the empty noon.
Men and women, friends and lovers, now had left the valley lonely, and the despairing child's last cry, as he looked back, an echo, an echo only.
Here ranged along this shallow pit the men of Lidice once stood, and here their last glimpse of the world was this green curve of field and wood.
From the frail cavern of the skull their sightless eyes confront the sky and stare undaunted from the dust, proud men who did not fear to die.
Man's priceless treasure here lies spilt; but from this bitter ash of pain an unquenched spirit stirs and springs, renewed to live and burn again.
Now silent Lidice lies still, and stirs not, yet its stones proclaim, ravaged and mute, to all the world a matchless and immortal fame."

The Maynooth University Chamber Choir was conducted with real understanding by its young conductor, Mr Ciaran Duffy. The clear young voices of the choir conveyed with wonderful tenderness and feeling, the pathos and anguish of the work. The choir had very good diction, which enabled the audience to hear Nancy Bush's words clearly. It was a very moving performance and a welcome revival of a beautiful work.

Rachel O'Higgins, April 2002.