Write a comment
St Killian’s GAC members are celebrating the success of their instrumental group in the Scór na nÓg all Ireland final.
Martha and Felix McKeown, Niamh and Annie McVerry and Manus Sherry gave a first-class performance at Saturday’s All-Ireland final in the Hillgrove Hotel, Monaghan.
This talented group play a wide array of instruments including Fiddle, Banjo, Accordion, Harp and Uilleann Pipes. This is the first year for this group of five to compete in Scór together and it is the first ever time that a Whitecross Scór na nÓg Instrumental group have achieved county and Ulster GAA titles.
Niamh, Annie, Martha and Felix all attend lessons at Traditional Arts Partnership and are members of the newly formed Dún Réimhe comhaltas branch. Manus attends lessons in Warrenpoint Comhaltas.
Their mentor is Eamonn O’Sullivan from Mullaghbawn who plays with the group ‘Screelin’ and is also a tutor at Traditional Arts Partnership.
The group started their Scór journey in the very competitive, South Armagh stages to qualify for the County final. They then got through to the Ulster semi final amongst tough Tyrone, Antrim and Donegal opposition, going on to win Ulster against the very best in the province.
Narrowly missing out to the reigning Galway title holders on Saturday, the judges highlighted that out of 2,200 GAA clubs across Ireland, Whitecross came second in the Ceol Uirlise (Instrumental Music) category.
Friends, family and club members welcomed the musicians home to St Killian's on Sunday evening and were treated to a cèilidh as they played some tunes from their All-Ireland performance. They were also delighted to be joined by Mullaghbawn’s Niamh Noade, who won the Amhránaiocht Aonair (solo singing) competition and shared her beautiful talent.
Paying tribute to the young musicians, St Killian’s Club Cultural Officer, Anthony Reavey said: “We are so very proud of our young musicians, who have put Whitecross on the musical map, representing their club, county and province. They are an absolute inspiration to us all, particularly to our younger Instrumental group who also represented Whitecross superbly in Scór Ard Mhacha this year.
“Huge credit to their mentors, their Comhaltas groups and most importantly themselves for showing what such dedication and hard work can achieve.”
