The Maghery Band Academy will have the great honour of opening this year’s Maghery Community Festival.
The event will officially open this Friday, July 14, at 8pm and has an array of events occurring over the weekend in the bustling west Donegal village.
Both the Senior Competitive Band and the Buion Cheoil an Machaire will be in attendance with current and past members joining them from the past 78 years of being established.
The bands are most fortunate to call Ionad an Machaire and the village of Maghery their home. The community and visitors to the area are no strangers to the distant sound of fifes and drums in the early hours of the morning or at late night practises and this summer there will be double the training as both bands prepare to compete in the Senior Fife & Drum section of Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann.
The Senior Competitive Maghery Band, who are seen in their cream and green attire, are in the midst of their annual training for Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann.
The competitive band are six times consecutive All Ireland Champions and are returning to Mullingar this year to defend their title in the hope to make it seven -in-a-row.
But this won’t be the only Maghery Band in attendance to Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann. Their second band, known fondly as ‘The Old Band’ (above) but known now by formal entry as ‘Buoin Cheoil an Machaire’, will be competing in the same competitive section.
Maghery have had Senior and Junior competitors at Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann in 2011 & 2012 but have never seen two senior bands enter in the same section, until now.
The Academy boasted as many as three bands as recent as 2019 – with approximately 90 members spanning three generations of families which is a massive feat for a small community.
The bands hope to see all the generations of members from the last 78 years come together to open their community festival this coming Friday night in Ionad an Machaire as well as spur them on in the build up to their summer competition.
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