No joy, unfortunately, for Roisin Magee and the Moneyglass instrumental music group at the Ulster Scor finals on Saturday, 20th February, in Downpatrick, but we have plenty of success to report from the Ballymena Festival of Music Speech and Dance earlier in the day.
The first competition of the morning session was for groups of primary school age and, for the sixth year in a row, our group was successful, winning the James Kerr Memorial Cup against a group from Glengormley
We also entered a secondary school age group who played well in the afternoon session but they were ultimately unsuccessful in a very competitive class.
In solo competitions, our prizewinners were as follows:
P5-P7 Tin whistle
1st Roise McCloy
2nd Aoife McOscar
P5-P7 fiddle
3rd Caitiona Lagan
Primary school miscellaneous instruments
1st Roise McCloy (piano)
Primary school banjo/mandolin
1st Caitriona Lagan
U-14 flute
2nd Roise McCloy
U-14 tin whistle
1st Padraig Mullan
2nd Ellie Conway
Secondary school banjo/mandolin
1st Patrick Magee
Open bodhran
1st Patrick Magee (accompanied by Padraig Mullan on tin whistle)
3rd Darcie Conway
Special awards were made to Roise McCloy and Padraig Mullan. Roise won the Primary Musician Award for demonstrating ‘outstanding ability’ at primary school age and Padraig received the Centenary Award for being ‘the most outstanding tin whistle player at the festival’.
Congratulations to all our competitors and prizewinners, and thanks to all the tutors and parents who assisted in preparing them for the festival.
See our Gallery for pictures of our participants