Lourdes Brass Band are South of Ireland Champions
Once again the Lourdes Brass Band has done the town of Drogheda proud by becoming the South of Ireland Champions. This year in Clonakilty, Co Cork, there was a record number of 24 bands who traveled the long journey to West Cork to compete at Junior, Intermediate and Senior level in the Championships which took place on Saturday 2nd July.
As usual the standard was extremely high at all levels, but the Adjudicators, James Cavanagh and William Halpin, pointed out that the Senior section was at an all time high. They were impressed with the performances throughout the day and when it came to the awards ceremony they congratulated all bands for their hard work and huge improvements made over the year.
When giving their comments on the Senior section, the Adjudicators stated that out of the top three bands in this section, there were two excellent bands and one outstanding one. As they were unable to separate the two excellent bands, they therefore awarded joint second place. After a few nail biting moments, where it was a case of all or nothing, it was finally announced that the outstanding band was in fact The Lourdes Brass Band from Drogheda.
Having won this Senior competition on four previous occasions, it has been a quiet few years while the band lost some of it’s key members to exams, college and employment outside the town. These players have now been replaced with junior members who have come up through the teaching process within the band classes, which are held on Tuesday evenings. It is the first taste of success for these members and hopefully it will be the first of many as the excitement it created was immense.
Not only content with first prize, the bass section of the band was also awarded the cup for Best Bass Section for the fourth time in row.