Announcing our Big Trad Breakfast for 2018 in The Elk on St. Patrick’s Day. We’re holding it upstairs in the Creagh Suite from 9:00am – midday. Breakfast costs £6 for adults and £3 for children and we’re hoping to have a music session throughout the morning so all musicians, young and old, are welcome.

Despite the wintry weather, we had a large turnout for our inaugural slow session for adults on Thursday, 1st March – pictured are just some of those who attended, Our next session will be on 1st April, and we’ll be publishing one or two new tunes to add to the set list in the next few days. Also, Loup CCÉ are having a similar slow session next Friday night, 9th March, in The Country House in The Loup prior to their regular monthly session. Starting time is 8:15pm.
Thanks to everybody who came out to support all three of our sessions last night on such a cold evening.

Congratulations to all our competitors at Ballymena Festival last Saturday, 17th February. We were represented by almost 30 musicians and delighted to have so many prizewinners – listed below. Also see our Photo Gallery for more pictures.

Primary School Age Traditional Group – 2nd.
Post-Primary School Age Traditional Group – 3rd.
Ellie Conway – 1st in U-14 tin whistle, 2nd in U-14 slow air, 3rd in U-14 fiddle and winner of the Sandy Spence Shield for most promising tin whistle player at the festival. Ellie was also awarded the Roisin McCloskey Cup as most outstanding tin whistle player at the festival.
Valentino Lupari – 1st in P5-P7 tin whistle and most outstanding primary school age performer at the festival.
Roise McCloy – 1st in U-14 flute and U-14 miscellaneous instruments (piano), 2nd in U-14 tine whistle and 3rd in U-14 slow air. Roise also won a £50 bursary as one of the two most promising performers in the Traditional Music section at the festival and will play at the Gala Night concert on Saturday, 3rd March.
Siobhan Magee – 1st in primary school miscellaneous instruments (concertina).
Caitriona Lagan – 1st in post-primary school banjo/mandolin.
Darcie Conway – 1st in primary school banjo/mandolin and 3rd in open bodhran.
Peadar O’Neill – 3rd in P5-P7 tin whistle.
Annie Diamond – 2nd in primary school harp
Katherine Kealey – Highly Commended in primary school harp

?

At our next monthly session, we’ll be launching a new initiative – a slow session for adults. The aim of the Newbridge CCE slow session is to provide an opportunity for adults to play together with others who share the same interest in traditional music and who have a similar level of ability. It’s sometimes called a ‘slow’ session because for most relative beginners it is almost impossible to make the jump from playing on their own, to playing in an established session, as the music is usually just too fast for them initially. The secret is in finding a pace that is slow enough to make it possible for newcomers to join in, but not so slow as to kill the music. A wide range of instruments are used at the session, including fiddles, flutes, whistles, accordions, banjos, mandolins, guitars, bodhrans and other percussion instruments.
So if you are playing or are learning to play a traditional musical instrument and feel ready to try playing in a group situation, you are most welcome to attend this monthly session to play or listen.
Below is the list of tunes we will be starting with. Sheet music and audio recordings of all the tunes are available for download from the Downloads page.

Oro Se Do Bheatha Bhaile
Finnegan’s Wake
The Dawning Of The Day
The Foggy Dew
Roddy McCorley
The Mountains Of Pomeroy
The Kerry Polka
The Newmarket Polka
The Geese In The Bog
The Connaughtman’s Rambles
Out On The Ocean

Our first session will be in The Elk, Toomebridge, on Thursday March 1st at 8.15pm
For further information please contact Seamus – 07960956959

Our next monthly session is this Thursday, 1st February, in The Elk. We’re back downstairs this month with the junior session at 7:45pm and the senior one at 9:00pm. Admission to the junior session is free. To the senior session, it’s £3 and includes a light supper around 10:15pm.

Our first sessions of 2018 will take place on Thursday night, 4th January, in The Elk. Both junior and senior sessions will again be held in The Creagh Suite (upstairs) and starting times are 7:45pm (junior) and 9:00pm (senior).

Classes resume on Saturday, 13th January, in Anahorish Primary School. There are a few spaces left in most classes, so enquiries via PM/website/email are welcome. Registration will take place from 10:15am onwards on the morning of the first class. The 12 week term will finish on 28th April, with breaks for Ballymena Festival, St. Patrick’s Day and Easter.

Our special session on Thursday, 7th December, to mark our branch’s 40th anniversary, was a huge success. Here’s a short video of highlights of the evening – there are also some pictures in our Gallery. Thanks to everyone who contributed to a great night.

We had our Christmas concert on Saturday, 16th December, in Anahorish Primary School where all our classes performed with their tutors for friends and family. It was a great morning’s entertainment with superb talent on show. In the afternoon, we played a few tunes at the senior citizens Chritmas dinner in Ballymaguigan GAC where the turnout of about 20 junior musicians was fantastic. Thanks to everybody for supporting both events. There are additional pictures in the Gallery.

We’ll be marking the 40th anniversary of the formation of our branch at our next monthly session on Thursday, 7th December, in The Creagh Suite in The Elk. As usual, the junior session will be from 7:45pm-8:30pm and the senior session gets under way at 9:00pm. We’ll have a raffle instead of the usual admission fee and will be serving a light supper around 10:00pm. Everyone’s welcome and we’ll have a few special guests to help celebrate the occasion. It would be great to reunite some of those who have been involved in the running of the branch or who simply attended and supported our functions over the years, so spread the word!

If you missed our performance on the Ceili House programme on RTE Radio 1 on 2nd December, you can listen to the entire show on the RTE website – if you want to skip to our slot, it was about 10 minutes from the end, at 43:30. Our thanks again to everyone involved in the organisation and production of the programme.

https://www.rte.ie/…/924584-ceili-house-saturday-2-decemb…/…