 We're here to what Tan? Anyway just in case you didn't know or maybe you aren't aware the Donegal Fla is coming to Let It Kenny this year and it kicks off from 6th May to the 8th of May and I'm delighted. I'm joined by Majella, Shannon, Saisha and our very own Gene Corn. Good evening to you all. Good evening to you Paul. It's strange to be on this side. I know why. Are you nervous now? I'm a bit nervous. I never know what you are going to say to me. At least when I'm on that side of the desk I know what I'm going to ask and I know what you're going to ask. Come here you're all very welcome. Gene you're the chair of the cultists. That's right I'm the chair of the Donegal Fla. And then Joseph Gibson who's the vice chair of the branch is the chair of the Fla but he unfortunately couldn't be here with us tonight. Of course and we'll pass on our applause to Joseph and his family at this time. Now tell me this. We'll talk to Majella, you're the secretary. Tell us a bit about your role in this. Well I'm the secretary. I'm taking care of all the entries for the competitions. Okay. And anybody who needs to enter the competitions will follow them to me. Yeah. And does it keep you busy? It does yes. Too busy maybe at times? Sometimes yes. Very good. And we'll just move on Shannon, your role. Yeah so I'm the PRO of the cultists and just you know promoting the music and Get everybody aware? Yeah just letting everyone aware of what's going on and how to like access your music and stuff really. Great. Right we're going to talk more so don't be thinking as I said. Saoirse your role in this. Yes I am the Irish officer so maybe try and promote a bit more Gileaga around Latterkenne. Very good, very good. And is that difficult to do? Are you translating or are you just writing on your own accord? Well I was translating a few letters here and there and a few things like that. So we're trying to bring Irish more into Latterkenne. I know they're letting you can and do a lot of work already but it's just trying to get more people speaking it within Latterkenne. Of course well done. Right we're going to go straight to a piece of music first on if you still mind. So first up what have you got? The first tune is the Stone of Destiny. Right. And then that's going into a really called The Holly Bush. It was composed by Finn Bardwire. Very good. And you're ready? It's all about plenty of good music and Maria McCormick says mighty playing, mighty playing it is so well done. So tell us the series of events that are happening and so it's kicking off on the 6th. What's the program? Well on the 6th we're going to have a Keely out in the Bonnegee Hall. Okay. I think that's tradition that there's a Keely always the first night of the flat and it's a fear Keely and a two hand and from what I gather it has to be very specific or people might be disappointed. So that kicks off about nine o'clock and there'll be tea and sandwiches and Martin Duggan Tory sound he is playing for us at the Keely. Oh very good. And then on the Saturday then's the competitions and they're going to be held out in the LYAT or the Atlantic Technological University as it's going to be called and that's a new name for you. That's a new name yeah they've got university status now yeah so very excellent so that kicks off about 10 o'clock in the morning until about six so it's great that all the competitions are in the one venue rather than you know parents with children going from one venue to another venue. So that's on the Saturday and then on the Sunday then we have a marching bands competition in the town park and a family fun day as well for all the family so we're just praying now for good weather for that. Well as the event in the LYAT is it indoors? It's indoors yeah it's indoors yeah that's for the competition. And Sunday's the big day with the parade? No it's not a parade. A marching bands competition. So what we envisage is that the competition will be held in the town park and then that we'll have a parade then afterwards maybe down the high road and down the main street. Ah very good. And of course there'll be a lot of pop-up sessions around the town as well all over the fly not only in pubs but maybe in restaurants or outside as well. So when's the last time the flower was in Lerner Kelly? A long long time ago long before my time had been involved in it but the last Donegal flower was back in 2019 in Moville and it was planned then for Carandona but then Covid then put an end to that so there hasn't been a flower now for two years and I suppose with all the ups and downs of Covid and the Omicron very until last December the County AGM many of the branches in Donegal were reluctant to hold the flower because you know it could be on could be off. So Joseph our vice chair decided it that it's Fagerland that we'll go for it and hope for the best so all things fingers crossed I think that we're on the other side of the tunnel liar and we'll have it alive. Is there a lot of work involved in it? A lot of work involved. Now Joe is the driving force behind this and it's unfortunate that he's very persuasive. He is like he really is he's so energetic and he has such wonderful ideas and he's trying to see outside the box this year that you know that to bring in families to bring in other things that are just not completely tied to music and it's it has energies fabulous and of course Majella the secretary always think the chair is the easy when you just chair the meetings but Majella has all the correspondents and entries to deal with so she is very busy. Well done Majella. But come here is there is there a possibility getting the national one? Well that's what we're hoping for I said maybe our branch are seeing this as a trial run and maybe showing the businesses of Letter Kenny just how much the flower could bring to the town and I suppose like Letter Kenny is it's a great town there's so many businesses restaurants bars shops and it's a great occasion for Letter Kenny to showcase what it has to offer and the flower was here back in 2005 and 2006 and I think the people of the town didn't realize just exactly what it would bring to the town and I suppose in the last what 17 years I think the flower has grown it's on TV now it can be it's seen all over the world and it would be great if it came back to Letter Kenny again so fingers crossed we're putting plans in motion and I suppose there's a few procedures that have to be as a big criteria for do you have it nationally? Well there is I suppose there's generally a lot of competition for it because I suppose you know everybody wants everybody wants it and that's what you have to have your spoken as I say a few years before you actually get it but things will look good I think fingers crossed I think we're we're fairly positive that it will be back in Letter Kenny in the not too distant future. Oh that's great and listen you know where we are to help you promote it I think it's I think it's amazing the work that goes into this that people are willing to do that and well done to yourselves and everybody involved and it's a huge huge undertaking I've no doubt you know we're trying to get all the logistics in the place they you meet up as a group once a month in the Tassie no well once once a week once a week a big apartment once a week yeah once a week every Tuesday night in Sister Sarah's from eight o'clock to ten o'clock oh I thought it said Silver Tassie Silver Tassie is on a Sunday with Lina Legelege on a Sunday afternoon that's with some of the younger musicians they like to come on a Sunday afternoon maybe the second Sunday of every month the second Sunday of every month and that's and have you big numbers at the time Legelege we do have well yes we have good numbers out of yes so the the group that you have obviously you're putting forward here now for you know you're going forward with the flag but as a as a development group are young people encouraged to join and develop their their skills yes from a very young age how can they go about that or a lot of them will be at classes join classes locally and get involved then with the sessions as they get older and the music and does it start off in the schools is that work some of us starts in the schools yes and some of some classes and the local the branches Donegal has a lot of branches of Curtis okay and a lot of the young people we get involved with the different branches is it a healthy place now to one of the yes the the music side of things the music yes it is yes there is a lot of younger the younger generation coming along and it's nice to see it because it's something that could day out very easy isn't it because you know so you meet you meet every week in the town yes and then you meet every the first Sunday and every month then and silver tassie and these days like is it an open session or what yes an open session everybody's welcome from any age all ability all levels of ability I suppose like whenever I retired Paul I took a I played a bit while yet off now I took up the fiddle again and actually I just heard John Breaston say today that that Paddy Glackin is getting the gradually which is the Oscars of traditional music and whenever I was in college in Dublin his father Tom Glackin taught me the fiddle for about three or four months just my final year college then I came home then and gave it up and I just took it up a few years ago and retired yeah I did yeah but I didn't want to inflict that on the listeners tonight I said they didn't do anything on me so it just so happens we have a difficult instrument I suppose if you're talented it's not and if you stick at it like you know there's a there's a there's a younger comes to our um sessions um oh dear um yeah shawna and uh like like she started coming to the sessions whenever I went back to a few years ago and I'm just looking at her and on and all the all the tunes that she can play but uh I really don't have any any great ambition to be a wonderful player I just I just like joining in uh a few jigs and things like that there's a set called Jean's Jigs the Humors of Glen Art and Saddle the Pony and uh uh Tonerous or Tobin's Favourite and and I can manage those at a at a 33 speed not a 45 speed there's people listening I'm probably don't know what you're talking about but I know exactly what you're talking about but uh no that's great and I think it's brilliant that everybody's uh involved and as I say we wish you well right but let's get another piece of music uh if you don't mind so what would we have this time do you need to tune up uh tell you what I'll do you just have a wee think about it right I will go for uh an outbreak and move it back after this don't go away are you refurbishing your bathroom or fitting out a new one for the first time for hassle free expert advice contact mcdade's bathroom plumbing tiles bunkrana we have supplied thousands of bathrooms throughout the north west and our expertise is here to save you money and help you choose your dream bathroom call to our showroom in bunkrana or come and see us at the donnago new build and rebuild 2022 show at the mount aerugal hotel on the first second and third of april mcdade's bathroom plumbing and tiles bunkrana yes indeed you're welcome back it's uh just 25 minutes in front of 10 o'clock on a monday night the monday night sessions and we are joined in studio by our good friends from the cultists who are uh getting organized for the flower on the 6th of may to the 8th of may this year and it's going to be brilliant so well done to them we're going to get another piece of music from them and uh this time uh seasha what are you going to do first um we'll play two jigs this time the first one is my former wife and the second one is the green fields of woodford whenever you're ready thank you very much indeed somebody just who texted on there decided i didn't know if i could dance oh i robert collin robert i'm a very well known dancer uh wouldn't be a very good dancer but i'm a well known dancer so thanks for that well done indeed and uh hello paul and jimmy from john wallace uh please wish good luck and all the best to jean and everyone for the dunagall flat and me and you'll be flat out he says flat out ah very good john that's a me me corny joker we could put a we could put that one on this area ah very good john so i'll ask you seasha uh how can someone get involved uh in in all of us in cultists yes um well so as mijelo said earlier there's cultist branches all around dunagall um so there's ones in ishone gedore fanid and letter kenny um so anyone in the letter kenny area would join the letter kenny cultists and we have sessions every tuesday as mijelo was saying and it's open to anyone and you can go along and ask the join as a member yeah you can come along and join do you have facebook social media yeah so we have a facebook for the cultist cultist letter kenny okay and then we have another facebook for the flat flat lk oh very good so you get all the information on the two facebook pages well it might sound like a long time away but it's not it's only just around the corner and you probably uh you probably pinch yourself a tiny little corner it's only around the corner it is sure it's april this weekend i know that and um shannon your p your pr o you you have a lot of work to do then you have to be the sort of get the communication out there to people is not basically what it is yeah that's really well it's just letting people know everything that's going on promoting the music is this your first time to do it yeah this is like my first year kind of asit in the cultist so how you find it yeah it's been good so far i was uh like a while ago i was writing up a article on everything that our cultist did over like the past two years of covid and stuff what we've been up to like hosting like online zoom sessions and then we zoom workshops and stuff like that so you kept the project was still going ahead yeah through zoom yeah we still had the music going through covid on zoom and everything so we didn't let it stop us no obviously we couldn't get the gallery crowds and that but do you know zoom zoom saved a lot of us saved a lot of our sanity i think you know because we had we had zoom for everything and uh we still actually do zoom things for the meetings and stuff which is great well it's good that you're able to how did you how did you work that as a as a group we we zoomed it how did you do that just well someone like set it up and then we'd all join and then so you don't be on that all then we yeah all the way screens and then someone would someone would play on their own one day and then obviously you know it would kind of the connections and stuff there'll be all echoing and stuff so everyone else had to meet themselves and just the one person playing so everyone else could play along with them very good and the zoom still going on for you know for people that are maybe just too far away and you don't do the zoom still no some people just do the music classes some teachers would still do some of the music classes on zoom but mostly it's at the sessions or everything's live now it's good it's good to see it back live again to be honest and uh but now as i say this album here uh we had that we got that a couple years ago didn't we and it was four years ago yeah is that along with this chain i think was was the jordan brought that up this one time and there's some are you using that yes you know right and just you know and you'll have to get involved in the normal one and all this thing you know okay i have to come and watch this space well listen um it's it's been brilliant i really enjoyed having you up here just before we go oh you're not away yet i thought you were i thought you were i said here's your coat what's your hurry like but you know just for entries to the flower um this weekend will be the closing date for them to send them send them to majella uh you can download the form on www.cultus.ie and you can get information as well on our own facebook fly letter kenny and uh you just email them then to majella at flylk at gmail.com brilliant and uh that's all systems go then i can't i know really looking forward to that because it does create a buzz you know it really really does and and you never know a couple of years we're made of the big fly here and that it'll create somebody you'll have some PR over them and there'll be a program out as well in april uh it's supposed once we finalize plans there'll be a program on sale throughout donnie gall on what's happening yeah very good gene and uh is there any i use video on it i use recorded and any for yourselves or i would say i'd say jule have all that organized yeah i have no doubt he'll have the cameras out i have no doubt at all but uh right before we go i'm gonna say our goodbyes we'd love to get another piece of music if you don't mind have you another piece lined up for us they're looking at you majella aren't they for some reason uh yeah we'll go with jigs again the first tune is mccuse and the second tune is the mist covered mountain thank you very much knit the may and stick it on your diary and tell your family and friends all about it and help support these uh all these people that do great work at keeping the music alive and keeping traditional music alive so thank you very much majella thank you very much indeed shannon and searsha and gene corn gene why aren't you back on the radio again back in sunday night back in sunday night seven to nine nice to be back at night i enjoy your music i love your music come some saturday morning you're on there and i really you just know you turn on the radio you know somebody's on without hearing their voice your bob dillon stuff and the usual suspects the usual suspects are class listen folks thanks very much indeed it's the flower it takes place in letter candy from the sixth of may to the eighth of may and you can check them out for on or all the social media platforms and so w w w dot coldest dot i for the form and then uh the flower uh flower lk facebook page and the coldest letter candy facebook page is there many people applying that's good that's brilliant we'll listen uh if you need any more uh help with it let us know and we'll do our very best here but uh listen folks thank you very much indeed and thanks for coming up and join us and gene all the best and something thank you very much indeed thanks for having us oh you're welcome hi dad just popping on to say hi