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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.

A couple of our junior members had the amazing experience of performing in the Royal Albert Hall on 6th November as members of the St. Mary’s Grammar School traditional group at the Music for Youth Proms. Caoimhe O’Kane, Roise McCloy and the rest of Cumann Ceoil Naomh Mhuire performed brilliantly and received a great reception from the packed hall. Many friends and family members travelled to London and enjoyed a thoroughly entertaining show comprising a wide variety of musical talent.

Our thanks to Miss Una Donnelly and the staff at St. Mary’s for providing this fantastic opportunity for the youngsters and for their organisation and preparation of the children for the trip. A short clip of the end of their set is available here.

We had a very successful first session of the season on 4th October with large numbers of musicians at the junior, slow and senior sessions. We also took the opportunity to celebrate the achievement of Caitriona Lagan in winning the All-Ireland U-12 mandolin competition back in August, and were delighted to be able to make a presentation to her, on behalf of the branch, in recognition of her success.

The next set of tunes for the slow session has been uploaded in audio and sheet music formats to our Downloads page. Something different this month – a couple of slip jigs, Deirdre’s Fancy and The Dusty Miller.

Classes are also going well, and following the class on 20th October there will be a break for Halloween, with the next class being on 10th November.

Our AGM will be held in The Elk on Wednesday, 24th October, at 7:00pm. We would encourage as many members as possible to attend as this is an important forum for discussing branch development, activities and plans for the coming year. New members are also welcome, especially parents of children attending our classes who would like to find out more or be involved in the running of the group. Membership fees for 2018/19 are due on or before this date as registration is being submitted to the county board following the meeting.

With classes now under way, we’re having our first monthly session of the 2018/19 season in the Creagh Suite at The Elk on Thursday, 4th October. Session times are the same as last year (juniors at 7:30pm, slow session at 8:15pm and senior session at 9:00pm), but supper will now be served at the earlier time of 9:30pm. Admission to the slow and senior sessions is £3 and everyone is welcome.

As part of the ‘Trad for Trocaire’ fundraising initiative, we were pleased to be able to provide some music at the Saturday evening and Sunday morning masses in Newbridge on 29th and 30th September. Thanks to Fr. Fox for the opportunity to perform, and to the parishioners who generously donated a total of £627.86 to this worthy cause. Well done to all our young musicians and thanks, also, to those who helped with the collections.

Belated congratulations to these three girls who all got Distinctions in their grade exams a few months ago.
Darcie Conway – Grade 4 Banjo
Caitriona Lagan – Grade 6 Banjo
Roise McCloy – Grade 8 Piano and Grade 8 Tin Whistle