Ceoltoiri na Sionainne

Contact

  • Majella Bartley
  • Director, Ceoltoiri na Sionainne
  • The Irish World Academy of Music and Dance
  • University of Limerick
  • Limerick
  • +353 86 8946360
  • Visit Website

Features

Ceoltoiri na Sionnaine

Our Munster Youth Group

We are Ceoltoiri na Sionnaine, the Munster based youth group for Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Éireann. It all started out a number of years back when Majella Bartley and Sarah Jane Woods felt there was a need for young musicians to get together regularly, to have a meeting point for playing and swapping tunes and for showing off the talent of many young people, who sometimes dropped out of playing music along the line. Out of this, Ceoltoiri na Sionnaine was born. We started out meeting regularly in the University of Limerick, itself a great place for Music and the home of many fantastic ambassadors of our Irish traditions. We gradually started performing at gigs locally and also at the county and provincial fleadhanna, while all the time meeting with other young people from the province of Munster and enjoying the learning and socialising taking place.

They do say music brings people together and that can be said for certain about our exchange programme with Ceoltoiri na Breataine. The weekend of the 13th-16th of October 2006 will be remembered for music, fun and friendships. When Majella first mentioned this exchange, we knew the hard work would begin but it was an exciting journey ending with a memorable weekend. We received a workshop from the great Michael Rooney in Ennis as we picked up some tricks of the trade from him. The concert which took place in Danlann an Chláir, Ennis was a tribute to the late Joan Burke who passed away in the days leading up to the exchange. Joan, a native of West Limerick was resident in Luton, England and was a great lover and exponent of Irish Music. She would have been delighted to see this exchange taking place between her native homeland and her close friends and colleagues in Britain. To refer back to what I said at the start of the article, music does bring people together, both those living and those in their eternal home in heaven where I am sure the sessions and the tunes still ring out. The second half of this exchange takes place in Glasgow from the 12-14th of October 2007 where we, Ceoltoiri na Sionnaine will be jetting off to join our friends from Ceoltoiri na Breataine. I am certain the guys in Britain have a great weekend lined up and will keep us just as entertained as they did when they visited this province of Munster.

Our next major adventure took place just last Easter as we boarded on Delta Airlines to travel to Atlanta, Georgia in the USA to perform at the North American Convention of Comhaltas. Our five days in Atlanta will live long in our memories as we played for numerous ceili’s and sessions while still fitting in some sightseeing around Atlanta for good measure. The organisers were so welcoming to us and although dollars took some getting used to, the Weston Airport Hotel was a good home to us for the duration of our visit. Some say that its every traditional performers dream to travel to America and certainly we can count ourselves lucky to have had a safe and enjoyable trip, and we have vowed that hopefully, in the not too distant future, we will return across the Atlantic, no matter how much fundraising and bag packing it takes!!

We have an action packed summer lined up with our debut C.D. currently being recorded and also various gigs and performances taking place at major festivals and fleadhs throughout the country. Also visit our website at www.ceoltoirina.com for more details and information about our group and if you would like us to visit or to gig in your area, don’t hesitate to contact us through our website or Majella Bartley at 086 8946360. We would be delighted to hear from you.