Inishowen Choir of Ages

This project started from a tiny seed and grew to be a great oak!

I was a great admirer of the whole Choir of Ages movement, and a nearby branch of it called Ceol le Cheile – the Donegal Choir of Ages.  Our county is quite large, so after a few months of consideration and a great amount of advice and mentorship from local Conductor, Singer, Musical Director and Composer Neil Doherty, I took the step of launching the Inishowen Choir of Ages.

What followed were several weeks of unbelievable fun, great collabration and a spirit of ‘we’re all in this together’ that was both necessary and extremely enjoyable!  We achieved so much and our sound was absolutely brilliant – solo singers, harmony and group songs and a full band of amazing local musicians to back us up!  We laughed, we sang, we had tea and buns and we laughed more!

Our friends at Ceol le Cheile were invaluable in their support of us, and it was the most uplifting of experiences.  I can only hope our members (about 90 of us in total aged 7 to 80 something!) enjoyed it nearly as much as I did!

Our band was unreal – made up of Aidan McLaughlin on bass/double bass, Eamonn Cutliffe on Guitar, Liam Cutliffe on Drums, Rachel Fletcher on Guitar, Connie Doherty on Keyboards, Dermont Quigley on Violin and myself on Guitar and conducting duties!

Our band, our singers and everyone involved worked tirelessly on a voluntary basis, but unfortunately with just a few weeks to go until our big performance, we had to cease our efforts because of the Coronavirus pandemic.  We were blessed not to have been affected by the virus by the time we shut down practices and I’m so so hopeful that one day we’ll meet up again and finish what we started.

Hopeful, hopeful, hopeful!