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…/…

17th-19th November was a busy weekend for our musicians. Starting with a Mass on Friday night, through classes and group practice on Saturday morning, Magherafelt Camogie Club anniversary celebrations on Saturday night and finishing up on Sunday afternoon at the Co. Derry Comhaltas fundraiser in Maghera. Thanks to everybody who took part.

We’ve already had two very successful junior and senior sessions since the new season started, and classes, which are mostly fully subscribed, resume after the Halloween break on Saturday, 11th November. Our AGM will be held in The Elk on Thursday, 9th November at 8:15pm. 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.
There’ll be a group practice for next weekend’s Co. Derry Comhaltas concert following classes on Saturday, 11th November, at 12:00pm

We were delighted to be asked to attend a recording of the RTE radio Ceili House programme in Derry on Saturday, 21st October, and were privileged to record a couple of tunes for the programme. Thanks to everybody at Studio 2 for facilitating the event and to CCE Baile na gCailleach for the invitation to attend. The programe airs on Saturday 2nd December at 9:00pm on RTE Radio 1.

A quick update on our activities since the start of the new season.

Firstly, belated congratulations to the following girls on their LCM grade exam successes in the summer exams:

Caoimhe O’Kane – Grade 8 fiddle (Distinction)
Ellie Conway – Grade 7 whistle (Distinction)
Roise McCloy – Grade 5 piano (Distinction)
Cliodhna McPeake – Grade 1 mandolin (Merit)

Music classes are now well under way – whistle classes are all full with a very small number of places still available in the other classes. We’re also running an informal Irish language conversation class in The Elk every Monday evening, hosted by Kieran McKenna. All abilities are welcome to attend, although it probably isn’t suitable for younger children.

We’re holding a registration/information morning in The Elk on Saturday morning, 9th September from 10:30-12:00 ahead of our classes which will resume in Anahorish Primary School the following Saturday, 16th September. We’ll hopefully have some live music from our existing pupils, and committee members will be on hand to answer any queries and provide advice. We’d encourage anyone interested in attending our classes (including returning pupils) to come along and register to both guarantee their place and to facilitate the timetabling of the classes for the following week.
We do have capacity in the harp and piano accompaniment classes and would welcome expressions of interest in these instruments in particular – we have several beginner harps available for rent but anyone taking the piano accompaniment class will need their own keyboard.
All-ability classes in concertina and banjo/mandolin will start at 10:30am each week. The bodhran class will be at 11:15am as will the classes for both beginner and improver fiddle. The class timetable for tin whistle/flute and harp/piano accompaniment will be finalised following registration.
The Autumn term will consist of 12 weeks of classes from 16th September until 16th December inclusive, with a break for Halloween on 28th October and 4th November.
Fees for the term are £40 per pupil with additional family members paying £30, a slight increase on last year. Classes in a second instrument (if the timetable permits) will also cost £30.
Subject to demand, we may offer classes in other instruments, so email info@newbridge-cce.com or send a pm on our Facebook page with any suggestions or queries.
Comhaltas membership fees can also be paid at registration. The benefits of membership include reduced entry fee to fleadh competitions for juniors and free Treoir magazine (official Comhaltas magazine published three times per year) for senior/family members. Membership fees for the incoming year are:
Junior – £4
Senior – £8
Family – £14

So Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann is over for another year! We hope everybody who travelled to Ennis had a good time and returns inspired and enthused as we turn our thoughts to the resumption of classes next month. Our thanks to the organisers and everyone who contributed to making it a very enjoyable week(end) and well done to Hugh, Anthony, Roisin and Roise on being able to compete with the very best traditional musicians in Ireland and beyond. They were all worthy of their place on the All-Ireland stage and performed fantastically well.
No medals to report from our branch but huge congratulations to Gerard McCloskey of the Jimmy O’Hara CCE in Limavady (pictured above) on winning the O-18 Mens Singing (in English) competition. Well done, also, to the other medal winners from Co. Derry – Sarah McLaughlin (Jimmy O’Hara CCE) came second in the U-9 Comhra Gaeilge, Brigeen Mitchell (Loup CCE) was third in the 15-18 tin whistle, Donal Close (Glenullin/Loughbeg CCE) came third in the 15-18 piano and Claire Doherty (Loup CCE) was third in the O-18 whistling.