Ellie Conway

We had another hugely successful fleadh season this year, with multiple Ulster champions and an All-Ireland winner in Ellie Conway who won the 12-15 whistle competition at Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann in Drogheda.

At the Ulster Fleadh in Castlewellan at the end of July, Roise McCloy qualified for the All-Ireland in three different competitions, playing three different instruments, and coming away with two Ulster titles. Ellie Conway won at the Ulster Fleadh on her way to her All-Ireland success and we also had members in the winning O-18 Grupa Ceoil from Ceoltoiri Crosskeys – Hugh Mulholland, Anthony Totten, Roisin Magee and Patrick Magee The group went on to take second place in Drogheda.

Full list of prizewinners from the Ulster Fleadh were:

12-15 Piano – Roise McCloy 1st
12-15 Flute – Roise McCloy 2nd
12-15 Whistle Slow Air – Roise McCloy 1st
12-15 Whistle – Ellie Conway 1st 
12-15 Mandolin – Caitriona Lagan 3rd
O-18 Mandolin – Patrick Magee 3rd
Newly Composed Tune – Hugh Mulholland 3rd
O-18 Grupai Cheoil – Ceoltoiri Crosskeys 1st (including Hugh Mulholland, Anthony Totten, Roisin Magee and Patrick Magee)
O-18 Ceili Band – Killimorrie Ceili Band, Dunloy 3rd (including Dick McKeague)

And at the All-Ireland Fleadh:

12-15 Whistle – Ellie Conway 1st
O-18 Grupai Cheoil – Ceoltoiri Crosskeys

Hugh Mulholland, Roisin Magee, Patrick Magee and Anthony Totten

Congratulations to everybody who represented Newbridge CCE at feis and fleadh competitions this year. We have a short break now before classes get under way again at the start of September. More information will be published in the next week or two.

Ellie Conway (1st) and Roise McCloy (2nd) in the 12-15 Tin Whistle Slow Airs competition at the Derry Fleadh

Congratulations and well done to all our members who have been taking part in competitions over the past few weekends.

At the Antrim Fleadh in Dunloy on 11/12 May we had several prizewinners including Brian Magee who won the 12-15 accordion and his sisters Siobhan and Roisin who came second in U-12 concertina and O-18 fiddle respectively. Patrick Magee won both the O-18 banjo and O-18 mandolin competitions and they were all members of various Ceoltoiri Crosskeys grupai ceoil who won at all age groups. Brian was also in the winning Ceoltoiri Crosskeys 12-15 ceili band. Other winning group and band members from Newbridge CCE included Annie Diamond, Roise McCloy, Caitriona Lagan, Caoimhe O’Kane, Hugh Mulholland and Anthony Totten (all representing Ceoltoiri Crosskeys) while Dick McKeague was in the victorious Dunloy CCE O-18 ceili band.

The Derry fleadh in Derry City on 25/26 May also saw many of our members taking part, with several qualifying for the Ulster Fleadh in Castlewellan in July. Prizewinners are listed below – well done to everyone who took part and good luck to those going to Castlewellan in a couple of months. Well done, also, to the organisers of Fleadh Cheoil Dhoire 2019 on a really enjoyable and well run programme of events over the weekend.

12-15 fiddle – Ellie Conway 3rd(r)
15-18 fiddle – Caoimhe O’Kane 3rd(r)
U-12 accordion – Peadar O’Neill 2nd
12-15 flute – Roise McCloy 1st
12-15 tin whistle – Roise McCloy 1st, Ellie Conway 2nd
15-18 tin whistle – Caoimhe O’Kane 3rd(r)
12-15 banjo – Darcie Conway 2nd
O-18 banjo – Hugh Mulholland 2nd
12-15 mandolin – Caitriona Lagan 1st, Darcie Conway 2nd
O-18 mandolin – Hugh Mulholland 1st
U-12 piano – Annie Diamond 2nd, Eabha Walls 3rd
12-15 piano – Roise McCloy 1st
U-12 accompaniment – Annie Diamond 1st, Eabha Walls 2nd
12-15 accompaniment – Caitriona Lagan 1st
12-15 bodhran – Darcie Conway 2nd
U-12 ceili drums – Tony Diamond 1st
12-15 flute slow airs – Roise McCloy 1st
U-12 tin whistle slow airs – Peadar O’Neill 1st
12-15 tin whistle slow airs – Ellie Conway 1st, Roise McCloy 2nd
15-18 tin whistle slow airs – Caoimhe O’Kane 1st
12-15 duets – Ellie & Darcie Conway 1st
U-12 ceili band – Loup CCÉ 1st (including Eabha Walls, Tony Diamond and Annie Diamond)
U-12 grupai ceoil – @Loup CCE 1st (including Ava & Cora McPeake, Tony & Annie Diamond and Eabha Walls)
Newly composed tunes – Hugh Mulholland 1st, Roise McCloy 2nd

We were also pleased to be able to donate a couple of trophies at the Derry Fleadh in memory of two of our former committee members who passed away about a year ago. The Jimmy Bradley Memorial Cup for U-12 banjo was won by Anna Cleary from Loup CCE and the Henry McGlone Memorial Cup for 15-18 tin whistle was awarded to Marcella Kelly, also of Loup CCE. It was great to have Maureen and Paul McGlone in attendance to present the cup in memory of their father.

Anna Cleary, winner of the Jimmy Bradley Memorial Cup (U-12 Banjo) at the Derry Fleadh

And some of our younger members have been playing at feiseanna recently in Bellaghy, Maghera and Ahoghill. Well done to Annie Diamond, Aoife & Etain Madden, Ava & Cora McPeake, Siobhan & Brian Magee, Aodhan & Oisin Black, Bridin Nig Raine, Eabha Walls, Darcy Donnelly and Peadar O’Neill.

Apologies for any unintentional omissions or errors – let me know and I’ll edit accordingly. And if anyone has pictures they’d like me to add, just send them in an email and I’d be happy to post them. More pictures from the Derry Fleadh can be found on our Gallery page

A couple of our younger members had the privilege of taking part in RTE Radio’s Ceili House programme recently. The recording took place on 23rd March in St. Brigid’s School in Derry and was aired on Saturday, 27th April. Caitriona Lagan was asked to play in the ‘House Band’, while Caoimhe O’Kane was invited to perform a set of tunes with some of her friends

 
The event was organised by the CCÉ Baile na gCailleach branch who are hosting this year’s Fleadh Cheoil Dhoire 2019. Our thanks to them for the opportunity to be involved in a great night’s entertainment – the programme in full can be heard at https://www.rte.ie/radio1/ceili-house/#103100020

Music classes have now finished until the autumn. Our final class of this term was held on Saturday, 13th April, and took the form of a short session where all our classes came together to play for their families and friends.
Our thanks to the staff at Anahorish Primary School for facilitating our classes, to all the tutors for their hard work, the parents for their encouragement and support, and the pupils (young and not so young), for their hard work. The progress they’re all making was very evident at yesterday’s class so we hope to see them all back in September. Good luck to all those competing during the summer at various feis and fleadh competitions and to those attending summer schools and workshops throughout the country.
We have one more session before the summer break – on Thursday, 2nd May in The Elk. It would be good to see as many as possible from our classes attend the junior session at 7:30pm to finish off the year. More pictures from the session are available in the Gallery section of the website.

The County Derry Fleadh 2019 will be hosted by CCÉ Baile na gCailleach in Derry City from the 23rd -27th of May. 
All competitions will be in St Brigid’s College, Glengalliagh Road, Derry BT48 8DU. Solo, Duet/ Trio and Comhra competitions will take place on Saturday the 25th, with group and dancing competitions being held on Sunday the 26th.

Newbridge CCE members wishing to compete should fill out the form below and return it to any committee member, either at Saturday classes or at our monthly session next Thursday, 4th April, Closing date for receipt of the forms is Friday 12th April. No fees are payable by our members to take part in any competition but an entrance fee to the competition venue will be payable on the day.

For clarification, refer to the competition rules at https://comhaltas.ie/images/press_room/rialacha_fleadhanna_ceoil_2017_english.pdf or contact us by email or Facebook message.

Please contact the County Derry Fleadh Facebook page or countyderryfleadh@gmail.com for further details on the extensive programme of events at the fleadh.

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Thanks to everyone who supported and contributed to our St. Patrick’s Weekend events this year. Our Big Trad Breakfast was hugely successful again so thanks to everyone who came along, especially the many musicians who kept the music going throughout the morning, those who donated prizes for the raffle and the staff at The Elk. Raffle prizewinners were as follows:

Table Lamp & Clock – Damian Nugent
Waterford Crystal Glasses – Carmel Alexander
Belleek Salad Bowl – Paddy Crozier
Belleek Cups – Shea Loughran
2 Bottles of Wine – Dominic McClements
Tesco Voucher – Siobhan Breen
Large Easter Egg – Caoimhe O’Kane
Perfume & 2 Pictures – Mick McElkenny
The Elk Meal Voucher – Paddy Conway

We also had a large turnout of over 20 musicians for the St. Patrick’s Day Vigil Mass in Newbridge the previous evening. Thanks to everyone who played so beautifully.

Our next event will be the penultimate sessions of the season on Thursday, 4th April.

Over twenty of our young musicians made the annual trip to Ballymena Festival on Saturday, 16th February, and had a very successful day. Our young traditional group (captured above during a practice and minus a couple of members) played exceptionally well and were awarded 2nd place while we also had a large number of prizewinners in solo competitions. Congratulations to everyone who took part – a full list of our prizewinners is given below. Pictures of some of our solo prizewinners can be viewed at the bottom of this report or on our Gallery page.

Traditional Group, Primary School age
2nd: Newbridge CCÉ

Traditional Singing, Primary School age
2nd: Éabha Walls

Tin Whistle, Primary 1-4
1st: Cora McPeake
2nd: Katherine Kealey
Highly Commended: Darcy Donnelly

Tin Whistle Primary 5-7
1st: Valentino Lupari
2nd: Peadar O’Neill

Miscellaneous Instruments, Primary School age
1st: Annie Diamond (piano)
2nd: Ava McPeake (concertina)
2nd: Siobhan Magee (concertina)

Harp,Primary School age
3rd: Katherine Kealey
3rd: Annie Diamond

Solo Flute, 14 years and under
1st: Roise McCloy

Tin Whistle, Post Primary and under 14 years
1st: Roise McCloy

Miscellaneous instruments, Post Primary and under 14 years
1st: Roise McCloy (piano) 
2nd: Brídín Níg Ráine (concertina)

Banjo/Mandolin, Post Primary age
1st: Caitríona Lagan

Miscellaneous Instruments, 14 years to Adult
2nd: Brian Magee

Slow Air – Any instrument, Post Primary and under 14 years.
2nd: Roise McCloy

Roise McCloy also received the Roisin McCloskey Award, presented to the most outstanding tin whistle player at the festival.

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What a wonderful evening had by all at Newbridge CCÉ’s February session held in The Elk on 7th February. A night filled with traditional music and song to celebrate the legacy of Henry McGlone. Many thanks to everyone who contributed to putting the nights festivities together.

Our next monthly sessions will be on 7th March at the usual times. We’ve uploaded a couple of jigs to add to the set list for the slow session – Lisnagun Jig and Boys of the Town. The sheet music and audio files can be downloaded from our Downloads page

A couple of slides have been added to the set list for the adult slow session and will be played at our next session on 7th February. You can access sheet music and slow audio formats from our Downloads page.

Thanks to everybody who came out to our January sessions to play, sing, dance and remember one of our founder members, Jimmy Bradley. Three great sessions to start the new year.

Our first monthly sessions of 2019 take place on Thursday, 3rd January, in the Creagh Suite at The Elk. Junior session is at 7:15pm, the slow session for adults from 8:15pm and the senior session starts around 9:30pm. Admission is £3 and a light supper will be served – everybody welcome.
Also, our classes resume on Saturday, 5th January, in Anahorish Primary School. Times will be the same as last term and we’ll be open for registration from 10:15am. Fees for the 12 week term remain the same as well – £40 per class and £30 for additional classes or family members. There are still spaces available in most classes – enquiries welcome via our Contact Us page.