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.

Jim McPeake presents the Isabel McPeake Memorial Cup to Roise Devlin

Congratulations and thanks to everybody at County Derry Fleadh, Limavady 2017 and Jimmy O’Hara Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, Roe Valley on their hosting of the very successful and enjoyable Fleadh last weekend.
We had plenty of good results at Saturday’s competitions with numerous qualifiers for the Ulster fleadh next month. In addition to the prizewinners listed below, several of our younger musicians qualified as members of Loup CCÉ ceili bands and grupai cheoil. We were also delighted to be able to donate a new cup, in memory of Isabel McPeake, one of our founder members, to the winner of the 12-15 tin whistle competition. We’re grateful to the McPeake family members who attended the competition and to Isabel’s son, Jim, who made the presentation to the inaugural winner of the cup, Roise Devlin (pictured).
Well done to all our competitors and good luck to those who qualified to play at Ulster Fleadh 2017 Bangor Co Down on 29th and 30th July.
12-15 Fiddle : 2nd Ellie Conway
U-12 Flute : 1st Roise McCloy
U-9 Tin Whistle : 1st Valentino Lupari, 2nd Aoibhinn McPeake
U-12 Tin Whistle : 1st Roise McCloy
12-15 Tin Whistle : 2nd Ellie Conway
15-18 Tin Whistle : 3rd Caoimhe O’Kane
U-12 Banjo : 2nd Caitriona Lagan
O-18 Banjo : 1st Hugh Mulholland
U-12 Mandolin : 1st Caitriona Lagan, 3rd Cliodhna McPeake
O-18 Mandolin : 1st Hugh Mulholland
U-12 Piano : 1st Roise McCloy, 2nd Annie Diamond
U-12 Accompaniment : 2nd Valentino Lupari (guitar)
U-12 Bodhran : 1st Darcie Conway
U-12 Ceili Drums : 1st Tony Diamond
U-12 Flute Slow Airs : 1st Roise McCloy
U-12 Tin Whistle Slow Airs : 1st Roise McCloy
12-15 Tin Whistle Slow Airs : 2nd Ellie Conway
15-18 Tin Whistle Slow Airs : 1st Caoimhe O’Kane
U-12 Duets : 1st Caitriona Lagan and Patrick Bell, 2nd Roise McCloy and Tomas McElroy
U-12 Whistling : 1st Annie Diamond
Newly Composed Tunes – 1st Hugh Mulholland
Apologies in advance for any omissions or errors – let me know and I’ll correct accordingly. Finally, group classes are ongoing on Saturday mornings from 10:30am and will run until end of June.

See our Photo Gallery for more pictures of our prizewinners.

Classes finished last Saturday, 8th April, with a concert and will resume in September (provisional date for registration is 9th Sept). Thanks to all the pupils and their parents for supporting our activities this year – classes, sessions, fundraisers, Ballymena Festival, etc. We’re also grateful to our tutors and to the management and staff of both Anahorish Primary School and The Elk for facilitating our classes and all the other events we’ve organised.

Before the summer break, there will be one more session on Thursday, 4th May, in The Elk for both juniors and seniors. We’ll also be having a group class after Easter for a few weeks to prepare for a couple of functions coming up in the autumn. Starting on Saturday, 22nd April, it’s not suitable for beginners, but anyone from any of our intermediate classes is welcome to attend from 10:30am for about an hour.

Here’s a short clip of the performances from the class concert – I’m afraid we didn’t get any of the whistle classes or beginner fiddle class.

This year’s County Derry Fleadh will be hosted by the Jimmy O’Hara CCE Roe Valley branch in Limavady from 25th-28th May. All competitions will take place in St Marys School, Limavady, with dancing competitions on Friday 26th May and all other competitions on Saturday 27th May. Comhaltas members get free entry into competitions, but non-members must pay £3 per solo competition, £6 per duet or trio, £20 per group or band, or £3 per dancer. In addition, there will be an admission fee into the competition venue, payable by all competitors and spectators.

Entries for competitions must be submitted to the county secretary, Cormac Mitchell, (cormacmitchell@yahoo.co.uk) by 6pm on Saturday 29th of April (4 weeks prior to the Fleadh competitions). No late entries will be accepted, and there will be no provision made for entries on the day of competitions.
Comhaltas members should register with their branches, while non-branch members can download entry forms – click here to download the entry form from the Comhaltas website.

Fleadh Rules should be referenced to find the competition number when filling out the entry form and to check the competition rules – click here to open the Fleadh Rules 2017 document from the Comhaltas website.

Payment by cheque to accompany the entry form(s) should be made payable to Co. Derry Fleadh Limavady 2017 and sent to –

Cormac Mitchell
43 Ruskey Road
Coagh
Cookstown
BT80 0AH

Newbridge CCE members wishing to compete should fill out the form below and return it at classes on Saturday, 8th April.

Please contact the County Derry Fleadh Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/DerryFleadh2017/) or Jimmyoharacce@gmail.com for further details.

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