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 

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.