Meet the Ballymoney mum who wants to shatter perceptions about marching bands and says she gets on like a house on fire with her many Catholic friends
Diana Culbertson, who is co-presenter of the Radio Ulster series Bellows, Fifes and Drums, talks to Leona O’Neill about working in Dominican College and why she was honoured to sing at William Dunlop’s funeral
Diana Culbertson says she stumbled happily across marching bands quite by accident while doing her PhD. The 36-year-old singer and singing teacher became so interested in the music and the culture of the marching bands during her studies that she joined up and for the last 12 years has been practising, playing and pounding the roads of Northern Ireland with Dunloy Accordion Band.
And now with BBC Radio Ulster’s new Bellows, Fifes and Drums show, she hopes to open up the world of marching bands — one that has brought her much joy, a host of opportunities and many friends — to everyone else.
“I wanted to study band culture for my PhD,” says the mum-of-two from Ballymoney. “I did my music degree and my masters at Queen’s University and then took a break and went back to my PhD. I wanted to do something that was close to my heart so the topic of my PhD was the demarcation of territory and contested spaces. I looked at Dunloy and Rasharkin, which had kind of kicked off during my thesis. I ended up joining Dunloy Accordion Band as a result of my PhD, which then brought out my singing as a performer.
“While we are a road band, we also have a concert group which do a lot of performances in the off season from September right through to March, when the marching season starts again.”
Diana says she hopes that the strong family feel of marching bands that she is familiar with will shine through in the new radio programme.
“I wasn’t in bands growing up,” she says. “My whole family, all the boys in the family, all belong to the Orange Order. The Twelfth of July was kind of like your second Christmas Day of the year. I’m one of six children so it was one of the best family days for getting together. We just loved it. Sometimes I think country Twelfth of Julys had a closer knit feel to them. It was very familial, just a magic family day.
“When I was doing the PhD and as soon as Dunloy Accordion Band found out I could play something, it wasn’t long until I was fired an accordion. I play the accordion in the band now. I wouldn’t say I am very proficient at it. Even though I’ve been in the band 12 years, I am still a novice. I go for the fun we have. It is a really good communal spirit and everyone just gets on so well. It is lovely to be able to make music with other people, which I love, because when I’m teaching it is really one-on-one, and I wasn’t getting to perform. The band is like a second family to me. We have members from all six counties.
“It is really lovely getting out during the summer with your friends. Even the journeys to the parades is such fun. We play at the Orange parades from March right through. I find it’s a great outlet — when you have been a mammy all week and teach- ing all week — to get away from it all and have some fun.”
Diana hopes the new Radio Ulster programme, which she co-presents with Willie Hill, will go some way to changing the perception of marching bands that is often put forth in the media.
“The programme is an exploration of the music and of the marching bands,” she says. “You have your bellows on an accordion, your fifes, as in your flutes, and then your drums,” she says. “There are over 700 marching bands in Northern Ireland today. Some of them are absolutely fantastic. Those in them are all amateur musicians and people who have day-to-day jobs. It’s just so lovely to see people coming together and being so serious about music- making.
“In the show we look at how there are so many familial links in bands and how, even though you are maybe not connected to them, there is still that close bond and everyone wants to make the best music that they can. We’ve travelled the length and breadth of the country — down as far as Kilkeel and up north to Coleraine — and tried to record as many bands as we possibly could and get a good range of musicians. It was a lovely to get out and meet so many people and get their feelings, thoughts and memories of bands and band days out.
“We have had a lot of feedback already from the first programme. People have been saying that they learned things about bands that they didn’t know before. Because of the divide in Northern Ireland, and be- cause everything is segregated, we don’t know as much about each other as we should. I would love to be able to give a perspective through the programme to show that it is not just all noise, that people enjoy the bands for the sake of making music together. Because there is something about making music together that really is heartwarming and makes you feel good. And getting out with your peers, your friends and different people whom you maybe wouldn’t associate with at any other time in your life is a positive too.
“There really is more to it than what is depicted in the media during the marching season. What happens is that the bad always comes to the top first — if there is ever anything controversial, that is reported on first. If you think about it, there are 700 marching bands with at least 20 people in each one, that is well over 11,000 people mobile in a week throughout the marching season. That is a lot of people and they are all doing it voluntarily and not getting paid. It is just great. I love it.
“I hope that the programme will educate people and let them see what is deeper within. Sometimes we are afraid to ask what actually happens so it’s good to just show what it’s about — that we have great craic and that we don’t go out to do what we do with any ill intentions, that we are just are about making music and trying to be the best that we possibly can.”
Indeed, changing people’s perceptions of ‘the other side’ is clearly close to the heart of Diana, whose work regularly sees her mix with both communities. She teaches in Dalriada School in Ballymoney as well as Dominican College in Portstewart, as well as taking private classes in her own home.
I do a lot of cross community work,” she says. “I work in Dominican College in Portstewart. As much as it’s a mixed school, it has very much a Catholic ethos. I very much participate in events down there. I also work at Dalriada School in Ballymoney. I would also sing at Catholic weddings and special occasions.
“I have a lot of good friends that are both Catholic and Protestant and I am very much of the mind that I accept them for what they are, and they accept me for what I am and what I participate in. And we all get on like a house on fire.”
Diana, who is mum to two daughters, Nancy (8) and Rosa (5), has been singing since she was a little girl. Joining the accordion band gave her the confidence and the platform to develop those skills and she perfected them throughout school and into university.
She often plays a key part in family occasions, singing at weddings, funerals and christenings in churches throughout Northern Ireland. She sang a heartbreaking rendition of What Grace Is Mine set to the music of Danny Boy at motorbiking legend William Dunlop’s funeral last year.
She says she was “honoured” to sing for the Dunlop family and will be equally as honoured to stand on stage at Belfast’s Waterfront and sing alongside the Royal Irish Regiment band.
“I get a real enjoyment out of performing,” she says. “I was singing at an event for the Ballymoney British Legion to commemorate Armistice Day with the band from the Royal Irish Regiment. I had been asked by their musical director Richard Douglas if I would come and sing a few songs with them and it was lovely to be able to do that in my home town with the full Army band, pipes and everything. And from that they have asked me to sing on their new CD which is coming out in July.
“That is a great honour, I was delighted. And they have also asked me to sing at a function organised by the Army Benevolent Fund, the soldier’s charity, in June at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast.
“I am over the moon to be asked to
perform with people who have given up so much and are really brilliant musicians. I can’t wait to do it. It is just such a privilege to participate with the Royal Irish Regiment. And I’m also extremely delighted that I get to wear a ballgown for the evening.”
Diana adds: “This last year has been a bit of a blur because I’ve had that much on, a lot of it which came out of the blue, which is really nice. I am so thankful for all the opportunities that have come my way. I am greatly looking forward to what 2019 brings.”
Bellows, Fifes and Drums is on BBC Radio Ulster, Sunday, 6.30pm