HFC Band is still going strong in New Ross after over 80 years
THE HFC Brass Band celebrated eighty years in existence last year and is, in its ninth decade, still a great source of camaraderie and music in New Ross.
Founded in 1936 by Fr Carton, the band is rooted in the New Ross community and features generations of musicians from families like the Roches, Rossiters, Wilsons, Aspels, Bennetts, Merrigans, St Ledgers, Connollys and Bradleys.
Originally based at Marsh Lane where the Scout Hall now stands, the band is now based at the Pastoral Centre on Robert Street.
Nicholas Cooney has played with the band for 67 years. ‘I joined in 1950. The band means everything to me. It brought me to play in orchestra in England,’ he said.
Today Nick is conductor, musical director and chairman. ‘I wasn’t musical. I had to work hard at it as I hadn’t a good ear. Jackie Roche taught me. He was a brilliant band man. I love the band. The camaraderie is great. In the early days of the band you had absolutely nothing in the town. There were no social or boxing clubs. It was the forerunner for all of the clubs, except for the GAA. There was no radio, no TV, nothing. It was a vision.’
Conductor Mr Flannery from the Barrack Street Band in Wa- terford transformed the band in its early days.
The band came into being to perform for church ceremonies like Corpus Christi processions and at civic events. Its original instruments were bought in 1936 second hand from a London based company. At a time when there was no real social outlet in the town, the HFC band provided a place to go and a sense of identity for young people in the town and before long its numbers swelled to 25.
The band perform with cornets, tenor horns, euphoniums, trombones, E flat basses, B flat basses and percussion. ‘We were there at the beck and call of the clergy. We continue to receive strong support from Monsignor Joe McGrath and the local clergy. The band is supported by the people of New Ross and district by relying on flag days and an annual church gate collection plus Christmas raffle. We would like to thank the public for their ongoing support.’
Nick (77) played with St Patrick’s Brass Band in Waterford while playing with the HFC Brass Band.
One of the great band performances he recalls was in 1963 when President John F Kennedy visited the town from where his great-great grandfather Patrick left for America over a century previously. Town Council Chairman Andy Minihan asked the band to perform. ‘He came to us a month in advance and gave us a list of five or six American marches, 23 of us performed and it was a huge honour for all of us. I never saw crowds like it before. We had never seen American cars up close before and you would have never seen anyone of the stature of John F Kennedy and the respect the man was held in. He was like the patron saint of Ireland.’
After the performances an American reporter told the band’s then conductor Fintan O’Carroll that it had played it better than anyone he had ever heard.
Nick said the Brass Band Association started in the early 1970s and the HFC Brass Band had successes in Dun Laoghaire