Our monthly traditional music and singing sessions for December will be held in The Elk on Thursday night, 2nd December. The junior/slow session starts at 7:30pm and the senior one at 9:00pm.

Our last day of classes before Christmas will be Saturday, 17th December, and we hope to hold a small concert that morning in the Assembly Hall at 10:30am where all the classes will perform for their parents and families.

We’ve also been invited to play at the local Senior Citizens Christmas Dinner in Newbridge Hall on Saturday, 10th December at 3:00pm. Anybody who can make it should let me know so I can pick some appropriate tunes – 07768046530.

It’s time for our monthly sessions again – Thursday night, 3rd November, in The Elk at the usual times – juniors from 7:30pm-8:45pm and seniors from 9:00pm. Admission to the senior session is £3 – light supper provided. It’s also a last chance to pay any outstanding membership fees.
Classes resume following the Halloween break on Saturday, 12th November, and there’ll be six weeks of classes in this term, taking us to the final class on Saturday, 17th December.

Our AGM will be held in The Elk at 7:30pm this Tuesday night, 18th October. As well as existing members, we would welcome parents of children at our classes and anyone else with an interest in our efforts to promote traditional music, song, dance and Irish language in the area. It’s a great opportunity to give us some feedback, let us know how we’re doing, what we could do differently and maybe get involved in organising or helping out at our many activities. A reminder, as well, that membership fees for the incoming year are now due.

We’re happy to report larger than ever numbers attending our Saturday morning classes with the successful addition of harp and piano accompaniment to our offering.
Our first monthly sessions of the new season will be held in The Elk this Thursday evening, 6th October. There’ll be a junior/slow session from 7:30pm and the senior session will follow at around 9:00pm. Admission is £3 and a light supper will be served during the senior session. All musicians and singers welcome.
Also, membership fees for 2016/17 are due before the end of October. They can be paid on Thursday night or by contacting any committee member.

We’re holding a registration/information morning in The Elk on Saturday, 10th September from 10:00-12:00 ahead of our classes which will resume in Anahorish Primary School the following Saturday, 17th September.
The Autumn term will consist of 12 weeks of classes from 17th September until 17th December, with a break for Halloween on 29th October and 5th November.
All-ability classes in concertina and banjo/mandolin will start at 10:30am each week. The bodhran class will be at 11:15am as will the classes for both beginner and improver fiddle. The class timetable for tin whistle/flute and harp/piano accompaniment will be finalised following registration.
Fees for the term are £40 per pupil with additional family members paying £20. Classes in a second instrument (if the timetable permits) will cost £20.
Membership fees can also be paid at registration. The benefits of membership include reduced entry fee to fleadh competitions for juniors and free Treoir magazine (official Comhaltas magazine published three times per year) for senior/family members. Membership fees for the incoming year are:
Junior – £4
Senior – £8
Family – £14

One medal to report from this year’s Fleadh Ceoil na hEireann in Ennis – Hugh Mulholland, our secretary and banjo/mandolin/bodhran tutor, was awarded second place in the O-18 mandolin competition. Many congratulations to Hugh and, indeed, to all our other competitors at the fleadh. Although the weather wasn’t what we’d hoped for, it was a very enjoyable and successful event and we look forward to returning next year, preparations for which start with our classes in a few weeks – watch this space. The video above shows Roise McCloy and Caoimhe O’Kane playing in the 12-15 Ceili Band competition with Ceoltoiri Crosskeys while the picture below was taken at a street session in Ennis town centre and includes four of our members – Hugh Mulholland, Caoimhe Purvis, Caoimhe O’Kane and Anthony Totten – see also a video of some of the session on Youtube.

It’s a big week for our branch this week. On Wednesday or Thursday night our PRO, Eimear Cassidy will be in The Dome in Tralee, Co. Kerry, chatting to Dáithí Ó Sé in her bid to qualify for the televised final stages of the Rose of Tralee International Festival which take place next Monday and Tuesday night.
And over the weekend, we have no fewer than eight participants competing for honours at the All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil in Ennis, Co. Clare. Some of our members, like Caitriona Lagan (pictured) are already in Ennis, enjoying the good weather and the festival atmosphere.
Safe journey and best of luck to Eimear, Roise, Ellie, Caitriona, Caoimhe, Patrick, Hugh, Roisin, Anthony, their families and supporters, and all those travelling to represent Derry and the other Ulster counties at the two events.

Huge congratulations to our Ulster Champions from the fleadh in Bangor at the weekend!
Roise McCloy won both the U-12 tin whistle slow air and the U-12 flute slow air. She also came 2nd in the U-12 flute and, with Caoimhe O’Kane, was in the winning 12-15 Ceoltoiri Crosskeys ceili band. Caoimhe also played in the 3rd placed grupa ceoil representing Ceoltoiri Crosskeys, while Patrick Magee played in their 15-18 grupa ceoil who were victorious on Sunday.
Also qualifying for the All-Ireland fleadh, having been placed in their competitions at the weekend, are Ellie Conway, Caitriona Lagan, Hugh Mulholland, Anthony Totten and Roisin Magee.
Ellie came 2nd in both the U-12 tin whistle and the U-12 tin whistle slow air while Caitriona was placed 3rd in the mandolin. Hugh qualified as runner up in three different competitions: O-18 mandolin, newly composed tune and, along with Anthony and Roisin, in the O-18 Ceoltoiri Crosskeys grupa ceoil.
Many of the above named took part in other competitions as well but were not placed, as did Padraig Mullan, Tony Diamond, James McCloy, Brian Magee and Aoife McOscar. Well done to them all for their hard work and achievement in getting to the Ulster fleadh and best of luck to those who have qualified from our branch for the All-Ireland fleadh in Ennis on 20-21 August.

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Well done to everyone who went to take part in the Yew Tree Feis last week. Pictured are Ava McPeake who won the P4-P5 tin whistle and her sister Cora who received an award as the most promising musician at the feis. Other prizewinners included Annie Diamond (2nd) and Valentino Lupari (3rd) in the P1-P3 tin whistle. Their positions were reversed in the P1-P3 open section with Valentino coming 2nd on guitar and Annie 3rd on harp. In the P4-P5 competitions, Ava McPeake won the tin whistle and Tony Diamond and Maria McNally tied for 3rd. Darcie Conway was both 1st (bodhran) and 2nd (banjo) in the open section with her sister Scarlett 3rd on concertina. Finally, Aoife McOscar won the P6-P7 tin whistle.

Belated congratulations to Jemma Shivers – she has only just discovered she was awarded 3rd place in the U-9 tin whistle competition at the Derry fleadh back in March! Well done, also, to all those who took part in recent feis competitions in Derry, Larne, Coalisland and Maghera – I don’t have complete results but I believe we had a few winners!
Winners to report, as well, at the Antrim fleadh a couple of weeks ago. In solo competitions, Patrick Magee won the 15-18 banjo, mandolin and bodhran competitions and was placed 2nd in the O-18 duets with his sister, Roisin. We also had competitors in two Ceoltoiri Crosskeys ceili bands and four of their grupai cheoil and all have qualified for the Ulster fleadh as winners with the exception of the U-12 grupa ceoil who qualified in 2nd place.
Another busy year comes to a close tomorrow with our final classes of the season. We’re happy to report great progress being made by our young musicians, with increasing numbers attending both the classes and the monthly junior sessions. Thanks to everyone who supported our many activities and functions this year – classes, sessions, fundraisers, concerts, Ballymena Festival etc. We’re also grateful to our tutors and to both Anahorish Primary School and The Elk for facilitating our classes and all the other events we organised.
Of course, the music doesn’t finish just because our classes and sessions are taking a break for a few months. The summer is a particularly busy time for those dedicated to traditional music and many of our musicians will be competing at fleadh and feis events as well as attending traditional music summer schools and workshops throughout the country. We hope everyone has an enjoyable break and good luck to those representing us at the various festivals during the summer.