 one of their tunes and they are looking for members because they recently, well they restarted in 2015, it was a 150 year old tradition but the band had sort of, well they just weren't together and that's what it was, just a tradition at that stage but then they restarted and they got off to a flying start and well make a lot of other groups and bands and acts, just the Covid wasn't good and some members dropped off, so I know they're back rehearsing again and in fact the first performance just over a week ago and now they're looking for some new members as well, if you would like to join, well the musical director of current Donna Brass band is Fergal Daugherty and Fergal joins us in the studio and we're streaming as well online if you want to look in. Fergal thanks for coming in. Thank you John. It's a great story. It is a great story John. It's a great story I suppose to be back once again playing as you mentioned there, the current Donna Brass band we were lined up to play in the Bunkrana Sympathics Day parade when Covid hit in 2020 so the rug was pulled up from under our feet and between then and I suppose since we reformed we did manage to we managed to in collaboration with the current choir we recorded a number of online collaborations that kind of kept us going but we're delighted to say now that we're back up and running we have we have actually we were started a few months ago and we have played a number of performances since but we're at the stage now John we're actually looking for new members to to boost our numbers and when you say new members is it new musicians or can you teach people from scratch? Well we would provide provide the tuition in reading music so we're when we say new members you don't have to read music you don't have to play an instrument but you have to be committed John and you have to be prepared to put in the work what we we will take people as we say from 9 to 90 it's not it's not a junior band it's a beginner's band so so we do have a range of people from all ages so we're looking to augment that of all ages so you will teach people somebody comes in as long as they have an interest maybe a bit of an ear for music that's all that's required yes that's a hundred percent and a commitment and that's the main thing a commitment it does it does we practice for two hours every monday night but between monday to monday then participants would would would spend whatever 15 20 minutes each night learning their pieces and picking up on the bits that they would learn and what sort of instruments remind us of the the sort of instruments we would we would have arranged for instance we would have trumpets, cornets, trombones, euphoniums, baritones, eflat horns, drums we would have one one drum but there's a whole range of those instruments which you know they they go back the brass bands the brass bands even if i was to go into a weeb the history the the brass band in Canada was set up in 1885 John and around that time i suppose in the whole of Ireland they were set up as temperance bands by the church and as as one historian says to fill the hands of the the errant flock with musical instruments rather than drink and and that's how they were set up so so between 1885 you know the Karen Donenbrass band has had many kind of iterations that has fallen been reinstigated again and even the bands of of the the 1950s and the 1960s like a lot of the musicians in Karen would clap their teeth the likes of Barry Kearney and Patsy and Tommy McClellan and you know Michael Galbraith they would have all cut their teeth started with the band in the brass bands and went on to the dance bands and show bands and that so i suppose cutting to the forward to the current brass band in 2000 in 2015 myself and Tony Daugherty and a few of the other band members from the 1980s band that was administered by Michael Galbraith we decided we would love to get together and give children today the same opportunity and the same pleasure that we had in the 1980s with the brass band so about five has got together and we reinstigated the Karen Donenbrass band it used to be the St McCartney's brass band so we reinstigated the Karen Donenbrass band and from then to now other than COVID we've gone from strength to strength and were you still able to use some of the original instruments well believe it or not some of the instruments we have instruments that date back to 1887 we have one or two instruments now they're not playable but we do have a number of instruments dating back to 1918 that are still in use as you can imagine like the design of the trombone and the euphonium it hasn't changed over the years and essentially what it is it's a tube of brass wrapped with valves to directly air into the different lengths of valves so the technology hasn't really changed so yes we're actually using old vintage instruments that you know if they could tell a story you'd love to hear that story and there'd be many and and varied just the whole notion of joint just there's something almost therapeutic about listening to a brass band and I would imagine that sort of something similar applies if you're actually sort of on the inside if you're playing within the band and it will be good in a number of different levels physical health as well as mental health indeed indeed John I mean the actual physical exercise of playing a brass instrument it improves your lungs and your muscles it exercise your muscle in your stomach it there's the whole I mean the buzzwords today are about mindfulness and the whole you know release of anxiety you know that's what brass band brass banding does the two are practice people go away from that and and they've just released whatever worries or anxieties they had before before the practice so it's a real it's a real therapy as well for those involved I can well imagine because for some people who join the band it might be the first time maybe playing an instrument or the first time in a long time playing an instrument and then you come in and initially you might not have done any rehearsals or you might be totally new to it but as it goes on you're you're part of a group and you're realizing that I'm part of this ensemble and and and it's possible because of me and the others it's a real team effort you're you're right John and it is that community spirit I think that bonds the band together and that sense of history and a sense of the continuation of that history and and that sense of community and you know the performances that that that we play at they're all community events like like we live a busy schedule now coming up to Christmas we'll be on under the switching on of Christmas tree lights at various locations we'll be at different uh you know community events we just actually we just launched the uh recently we launched the uh Kamino walk we played in the Gap of the Moor in Orris so you can imagine brass band in the house of Orris we we also uh we we led the Gay Pride parade in Bunkrana we we uh were the front stalwart and that we also we marched actually in the Sympathics Day parade this this uh year as well I suppose come back to 2019 uh uh John or one of our highlights I suppose we were asked to pray to play in Aras Anukteran for uh President Higgins so so there were 32 of us in the band at that at that stage so we had the pleasure of playing for uh President Higgins in Aras Anukteran and we also played on the uh pier on on the bandstand in Dunleary we had a performance there uh so there's big payoffs there's some you know bigger performances a lot of local performances but it's you know it's it's not all about the performances it's about the joy and the fun that you get from rehearsals as well meeting people and just being part of the band it is it is and as I said it's that camaraderie and it's the uh sense of community the enjoyment uh it it really is it's a good story it's a good news opportunity for for those who want to put in the effort and and join us so what's the numbers like what's the numbers like now and what would you ideally like the numbers to be well at the moment we've uh 17 no in in in our membership at the moment we had as I said at our pre-covid we had 30 32 now what happens is a lot of those people go off to college uh they move on in life and and whilst all of them would say they'd love to be back in the band just life commitments and they have to move on so so it is a kind of a thorough continuous throughput of of individuals so you're always kind of having to replenish so I mean when you say in relation to what's the ideal numbers if if we we would like to build it up again to high high 28s 29s but if if we got more numbers than that we would have a second band and and uh you know a feeder band or a you know a secondary band so there's no there's no cap john on the number of of people that were were uh speaking to grow into the band all right I just reminded that uh you know no experience is necessary if you can read music then all the better but it's not a case of having to that you will teach people how to read music and how to play one of the instruments and rehearsals are every monday night in Cairndona I know that you travel up and down from letter kenny and there's no others that travel from around the area yeah yeah and everybody's in Cairndona no we would remember coming from Val coming from Bancrana myself and Karen obviously uh Karen itself uh Malin and uh from Baliffin as well so so we would yeah and uh a busy schedule between now and christmas because uh especially around christmas you hear brass band and maybe in the odd seasonal tune as well and indeed john we would have a nice program lined up for for christmas how can people get in touch they can get in touch by if if they just enter Cairndona brass band in google it will bring up our facebook facebook page and we have contact details there or they can contact any member of the the band in in Cairndona who uh who would have uh who'd be able to pass us on to the right uh individual and one last thing I'd just like to say uh john we'd also like to extend a welcome to our Ukrainian friends out there who through whatever contacts there are out there that if there are musicians or instrumentalists in uh uh that they would be most welcome in the in the Cairn area or if they're able to make their way to Cairn we would also like to extend that welcome to those as well brilliant absolutely never know it might be some uh who knows who knows who knows you never know yeah all right then Fergal listen the best look with it thanks for thanks for chatting to us thanks for having me john all the best now want unbeatable value from sky here's the deal