Strike up the band in Newmarket

A NEW generation will be introduced to the musical legacy of Newmarket-on-Fergus when the reformed local brass band gives its first public recital on St Patrick’s Day.
Revived as a scout band, 17 children and six adults have been practicing diligently since last September under tutor, Andrew Jordan from Limerick and leader, Derek Coleman from Doora. They are looking forward to the village green performance, according to Maire Ní Ghruagain, who traces the history of music in Newmarket since the mid 19th century.
A branch of the Temperance movement was set up in Newmarket in 1839 and in keeping with the tradition of the movement, it was decided to set up a brass band. Instruments were purchased following a public collection, while a band in The Wells was probably incorporated into the new one.
The brass band played at meetings of a political, religious and entertainment nature and at events related to the O’Briens of Dromoland. In 1869, the Newmarket band supported an amnesty meeting for the release of Fenian prisoners.
The band was at Ardsollus in 1874 to welcome home newlyweds Sir Edward Donough and Ellen and again in 1901, to welcome Sir Lucius and Ethel.
Foreign workers surveying the River Fergus played at Ballycalla in the 1880s and the local musicians joined them. In 1883 and 1886, the band attended evictions in Killula and Rossmanagher and it marched to Ballycar in October 1888 in opposition to the banning of National League meetings.
In April 1889, the band played at the point-to-point races in Killula and according to The Clare Journal, three Newmarket pipers were in Ennis at a Parnell meeting in 1891. It welcomed Michael Davitt in 1908, Willie Redmond in 1910 and Eamonn De Valera in 1917.
On May 28, 1914 the band played in Quin when a branch of the Volunteers was formally established and it continued to be strongly associated with the organisation.
On September 30, 1917, band members travelled by train from Ballycar to Limerick in support of Volunteer Sean Murnane, who had been arrested in Liscannor. Older parishioners remember the scene at the Minister’s Cross when the band played and lighted sods were held aloft on pitchforks as Dev made his way to the village. In 1930, James Kilmartin conducted the musicians, who were playing at a concert in the village. The last outing of the brass band was to Miltown in 1959 to celebrate Dr Patrick Hillery’s appointment as education minister.
The maintenance of the band was fraught with difficulties. Fifty members emigrated in the first 20 years and new recruits had to be found and taught by bandmaster, Patrick Slattery. Differences in attitudes caused disunity in the band, especially in 1906 and in 1917.
The late Jack Clune of Rosroe recalled that in 1906, younger members of the band brought their instruments, including a drum belonging to the committee of the Sixmilebridge band, to Kilmurry, while the older members tried in vain to stop them. In 1909, a pipers’ band from Newmarket played at the Ennis Féis. John Cullinan, Pat Finn and Alphonsus (Darrel) Hickey collected for the purchase of instruments for the brass band, which became associated solely with Sinn Féin and afterwards Fianna Fáil. In 1917, unity of the band was under threat as Sinn Féin party members objected to non-party band members taking home two clarinets.
In the 19th century, the Newmarket band had various names. It was The Temperance Band, The Parnell Band, The Tradaree Band and The Green Tumblers Band. In the 20th century, it was The Workingmen’s Brass Band, The de Valera Guards Band and The Brass and Reed Band.
Some band members became famous. Patrick Slattery served as bandmaster until 1865 and Michael Fennell succeeded him until he died in 1867. Patrick Slattery resumed the baton in 1874. Richard Molony was bandmaster in the 1880s and James Kilmartin was his successor. Two members, John Crimmins and Michael McGrath, were selected for the National Guards Band, a position John occupied until his retirement. Michael McGrath and his brother, Peter, were regular members of the band.
An interesting feature of the band was the involvement of two and even three generations of families. Some common surnames of the members of the 1926 and 1959 bands were (in that order) John and Mike McMahon, Andy McMahon (uncles, nephew); Jackie (grandfather), Johnny (father) and Michael, Jimmy and Jodie Kilmartin (sons); Mick and John Malone, Mick Malone (brothers); Mick Fahy, Paddy Fahy (father, son); John McNamara, Sean and Micko McNamara (father, sons).
Other members of the 1959 band were Pat Slattery, PJ Hayes, Jerry Andrews, Paddy Casey, Packie Lillis, John Considine, Michael Higgins, Bob Cunneen, Colm Walsh, Michael McInerney and John O’Loughlin.
In 1926, members who had been evicted from the dispensary for refusing to pay rent took possession of their former practise room. The supporters and band members jailed for one month in Limerick were Mick Doherty, Jack Dillon, Pat Finn, Flan McNamara, John O’Neill, Thomas Healy, Mickie Stammers, Thomas Liddy, Jack Hamill, James O’Neill, Patrick McNamara, John McNamara, Johnnie Conroy, Johnnie Arthur, S Conroy, Pat Slattery, Jim Aherne, J Greene, Jim Clancy, Christy Ryan, Mick Loughnane, Joe McMahon, Mick Fahy, John and Mike McMahon, Mick and John Malone.
The practise areas of the band were the national school house, now part of the community centre, the dispensary, the courthouse, now Lar a Bhaile and the Fair Green, where the premises was once known as The Soldiers Hall. When the county council acquired derelict buildings in the Fair Green in 1960, the band room was demolished and the instruments were stored in Roseville on the Ennis Road and later in the national school.
Sometime in late 1996, Maura Donnelly from 5th Clare Newmarket-on-Fergus Scouts was at the National Office of the Scout Association of Ireland. Asked if there was anything she would really like to see happen in scouting in the next 12 months, her answer, in true scouting tradition, was brave and adventurous.
“I’d like to see a cross-boarder camp with cubs and scouts from Northern Ireland and the Republic,” she said. That answer gave birth to the Friendship Camp, which took place at the then De Beers Recreation Club in August 1997. One hundred and fifty cubs and scouts from Northern Ireland and 150 Clare cubs and scouts camped and were involved over five action-packed days. At the time, Aer Lingus had a stopover in Shannon en-route to Belfast and it was a big treat for the cubs and scouts to fly to and from camp.
One of the groups from the North was the Enniskillen Scout Band. They are the northern equivalent of the Artane Boys Band and play at the Ulster football final every year. When the Ulster finals were played in Croke Park, they played there too.
Their attendance at the camp sowed a seed that was to become a reality 15 years later.
Danny Liddy and a number of others attempted to revive the Newmarket band in 1990. A committee raised £32,000 and 26 instruments were acquired. Twenty students attended classes weekly but the effort petered out before the band performed in public, although they did play a cameo role in escorting Brendan Quinlivan to his ordination.
Scout leader, Gerard Fahy, initiated the latest revival and there has been a steady improvement in musicianship since the first rehearsal last September. Obair has been a great benefactor to the new band, providing moral support, as well as a venue for tuition and assistance in purchasing additional instruments.
The local community is looking forward to hearing the strains of brass reverberating around Newmarket when the band strikes up its first note at 12 noon of St Patrick’s Day.