Well done to all our musicians who competed at the All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil in Drogheda at the weekend. They and their families should be immensely proud of their achievements this year with special congratulations going to our All-Ireland champion, Caitriona Lagan (U-12 mandolin), and second placed O-18 Grupai Cheoil (Ceoltoiri Crosskeys) members Hugh Mulholland, Roisin Magee and Anthony Totten. 
Well done, also, to the other winners from Co. Derry – Roise Devlin from The Loup (12-15 fiddle slow airs) and Jack Warnock from Maghera (O-18 accompaniment).

Huge congratulations to our two new Ulster champions!
Caoimhe O’Kane (15-18 tin whistle slow airs) and Caitriona Lagan (U-12 mandolin) won their respective competitions at Ulster Fleadh 2018 – Castlewellan Co. Down at the weekend and will now compete for All-Ireland honours at Fleadh Cheoil in Drogheda in three weeks time.
Joining them will be our other qualifiers who achieved second place in their competitions – Ellie Conway (12-15 tin whistle slow airs), Roise McCloy (12-15 tin whistle, 12-15 flute and 12-15 piano), Caitriona Lagan (U-12 banjo) and Patrick Magee (O-18 mandolin). We also had members in the Ceoltoiri Crosskeys O-18 Grupa Ceoil who also qualified with a second place result – Hugh Mulholland, Anthony Totten, Roisin Magee and Patrick Magee.
And we had several 3rd place medallists, namely Caitriona Lagan (U-12 miscellaneous), Hugh Mulholland (O-18 banjo and O-18 mandolin), Darcie Conway (U-12 banjo and U-12 bodhran) and Annie Diamond (U-12 whistling).
Caitriona Lagan and Annie Diamond played with the third placed Ceoltoiri Crosskeys U-12 grupa ceoil while Caitriona also got a third placed medal with their U-12 ceili band. And Roise McCloy was in the Ceoltoiri Crosskeys 12-15 band which also achieved third place.
We’re very proud of all the competitors who represented us so well at county and provincial level, and wish the best of luck to those from Newbridge CCE, Derry and Ulster when they travel to Drogheda on 18th/19th August.
Thanks, also, to those who represented us at the parade on Saturday evening and to the organisers and volunteers of the host branch, Newcastle CCÉ, for their hospitality and contribution to a memorable weekend. 
A full list of competition results is available at Ulster Fleadh Results

We were delighted to be able to donate some of the proceeds of our recent Trout Supper fundraising event to a couple of local charities, namely Northern Ireland Chest Heart and Stroke (£300) and Granaghan Outreach (£200). Thanks to everybody who attended or contributed to these worthy causes.

The next monthly slow session for adults will be held in the foyer of The Elk on Thursday, 5th July, at 8:15pm. A new set of tunes for the group to work on during the summer has been posted to the downloads section of our website and includes sheet music, slow audio and chord accompaniment formats.

Congratulations to all our competitors at Fleadh Cheoil Dhoire Léim an Mhadaidh 2018! As well as county champions in Caitriona Lagan, Darcie Conway, Tony Diamond, Annie Diamond, Ellie Conway, Roise McCloy, Caoimhe O’Kane and Hugh Mulholland, we had members in winning Grupai Cheoil and Ceili Bands representing Loup CCÉ as well as several other prizewinners and qualifiers for Ulster Fleadh 2018 – Castlewellan Co. Down in July. A full list of our prizewinners is given below and additional pictures are available in our Gallery.

Thanks and congratulations, also, to the Jimmy O’Hara Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, Roe Valley branch for hosting and organising an incredibly successful and enjoyable weekend.

Best of luck to all the qualifiers from our county at the Ulster Fleadh.

We’re holding a Trout Supper fundraising event on Friday night, 18th May, in The Elk. Proceeds will be shared between our branch and local charities and the supper will be followed by music from Folk ‘n’ Rogues. Starting time is 8:00pm and admission is £15. Tickets are available from Newbridge Stores or from any committee member.

Music classes and monthly sessions are now finished until the autumn. Our last monthly session was on Thursday, 3rd May, although we hope to keep the slow session for adults going throughout the summer. And music classes finished with a short session in Anahorish PS on Saturday, 5th May, where each class was able to perform for family and friends. We’re grateful to the management and staff of both The Elk and Anahorish Primary School for the use of their facilities throughout the year.

Well done to all our competitors at this year’s Antrim Fleadh. We had solo winners in Siobhan Magee (U-12 concertina) and Patrick Magee (O-18 banjo and O-18 mandolin) while Brian Magee came third in the 12-15 accordion. In group competitions, Patrick Magee was joined by Hugh Mulholland and Cillian Darragh in winning the O-18 trio competition and Hugh and Cillian also triumphed in the O-18 duet. Annie Diamond, Caitriona Lagan, Siobhan Magee, Roise McCloy, Brian Magee, Caoimhe O’Kane, Hugh Mulholland, Anthony Totten and Roisin Magee all played in winning grupai cheoil and ceili bands representing Ceoltoiri Crosskeys.

Our penultimate class of the spring term will be on Saturday, 21st April. We’re taking a break on 28th April due to the Antrim Fleadh in Rasharkin, which we encourage all our young musicians to visit over the weekend. Our final class will be an end of term session on Saturday, 5th May, in Anahorish where our pupils get to perform in their classes for friends and family. Best of luck to our members who are taking part in both solo and group competitions at the Antrim Fleadh.

Congratulations to all those who competed in recent feis competitions and who did so well in the spring term grade exams in traditional music.

Our final sessions of the season will be held in The Elk on Thursday, 3rd May. The new format of having all three sessions in the Creagh Suite is working well so we’ll be starting with the juniors from 7:30pm-8:15pm, slow session for adults from 8:15pm-9:00pm and senior session from 9:00pm. Two new tunes, Off to California and Fisher’s Hornpipe, have been added to the set list for the slow session and can be downloaded in sheet music and audio formats from our Downloads page.

We’ve received the first batch of Newbridge CCE jackets and half zips and will be submitting an additional order in the near future. Contact any member of the committee if interested in purchasing either.

This year’s County Derry Fleadh will again be hosted by the Jimmy O’Hara CCE Roe Valley branch in Limavady from 24th-27th May. All competitions will take place in the North West Regional College in the town, with dancing competitions on Friday 25th May and all other competitions on Saturday 26th May. Comhaltas members get free entry into competitions, but there will be an admission fee into the competition venue of £3, payable by all competitors and spectators.

Newbridge CCE members wishing to compete should fill out the form below and return it to any committee member at our monthly session this Thursday or at classes on Saturday, 14th April, at the latest. 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 Jimmyoharacce@gmail.com for further details on the extensive programme of events at the fleadh.

Download (PDF, 43KB)

Our next monthly session will be held in The Elk on Thursday, 5th April. For the slow session for adults, we’ve added a couple of polkas to the set list – Britches Full of Stitches (in A) and Ballydesmond No.3. To assist learning/practicing, audio and sheet music for these and all the tunes played at the session can be downloaded from here.

Our classes are taking a break for a couple of weeks for Easter and will resume on Saturday, 14th April.

We had a hugely successful Big Trad Breakfast in The Elk on Saturday, 17th March, with almost 400 people attending throughout the morning to enjoy the food, music and craic. Thanks to everyone who supported the event and who donated so generously. We’re grateful, also, to all the musicians, pupils, parents, branch members and the staff at The Elk for their assistance during the morning.