Last thursday my son let us know the school would be officially launching their new playing field and that he’d be playing at the launch.
We went along ofcourse, the school is on top of a hill overlooking Mt Callan to the south and an astonishing panorama right down fro mthe mcGillicuddy reeks, mt Brandon, the coast of West Clare across the Cliffs of Moher and the Aran Islands right up to the twelve Pins in Connemara. it was a bright evening, if a bit windy, and I shot a few snaps of the scholars playing music. The shannon Breeze, Morning Star, The Galway Rambler etc. They did well. (please bear in mind this is a country school of fifty pupils and not all players of the school were actually playing on the night).
These are great! Such concentration. The little blonde girl in the fourth picture is wonderful! I love the stone wall in the background, too. Good luck to them on their new playing field.
It is really nice to see these children playing traditional music. Are these the same ones that were on the web sites last year that we listened to? I wish they had taught us some type of music at that age. How many of these children will continue to play when they are older?
It is nice to be able to look at these pictures and have my mind swept away to a much nicer place than where it has been lately… floundering in the slurry of my country’s latest polical campaign.
Lovely images, Peter. Just as a matter of interest, what concertinas were being played and what was the flute the young girl was playing? I’m just a bit curious to know what instruments are available to the children.
Well…we here in the States have our photo ops of our kids in their little school musical groups. They just tend to heavier on the flutes and clarinets, and missing the whistles and concertinas.
Plus you don’t see the stone walls. Or the rural landscape.
In fact Peter, your pics could almost be 50 years old except for the girls in what appear to be warm-up pants.(I mean trousers.)
Very nice.
Great pictures. Nice to see a well supported music program.
I do have a quandry. In the second picture it looks like something is leaking from the lads concertina. I was wondering if the young lass on the left is asking: “Found your missing milk carton?” to which the lad replies, “Mom was supposed to put it in my LUNCH box.?”
Nice pictures, looked a bit nippy as you said. I like the last picture with the three lasses huddled togeather warming to the music.
There isn’t actually a music program in the school, msot kids go to Brid Donoghue for whistle and flute lessons . A few go to Edel Fox for the concertina and another few, including my son, go to Noel Hill for concertina.
But that is outside the school curriculum.
Whistles would be your average generation/faedog type, there’s one young girl in town who hasa Sindt, and a particularly rattly one at that.
My son has a Lachenal concertina, there’s one Jeffries, one has a new one a Gremlin and I don’t know about the rest. Chris Algar comes to the area at least twice a year with the boot full of concertinas so between himself, custy’s and the rest supply would be good.
The flute came out of a batch Brid got off Eamonn Cotter for her pupils last winter. Eamonn is hardly ten miles up the road and there are several flutemakers in the area, loads of flutes in circulation anyhow.
No negatives were reversed, Brid doesn’t fuss over right handed versus lefty approaches when teaching the whistle so there may some reversed positions there without the players being actual citeogs.
No, no young pipers at the minute though over time the school contributed WIllie Clancy, Martin Talty and Sean Talty to the piping world. My own son and young Talty are there now, interested but not quite started on pipes yet.
I was going to say the same thing, but from the logo on their jumpers no reversing has taken place. I wonder if any of the concertina players are lefties?
I was also wondering what you crack the champagne bottle on when launching a playing field?!?
In the light of recent Fortean musings on the board I’m tempted to suggest it’s ectoplasmic residue, or the earthly manifestation of an old concertina player, but I rather think it’s the clingfilm the lad brought his sandwiches in. Very nice to see he is not planning to litter.
