Freemount set to celebrate 40 winning years

All roads lead to Freemount Community Hall on Saturday 6th April for the star studded 40th anniversary celebration of the establishment of Craobh Cronán, the Comhaltas group that was established in 1983.

The celebrations will get underway of Friday night, 5th April at the Heritage Centre in the village.

The evening will begin with a thanksgiving Mass in the local Church, and afterwards everybody that was involved in Freemount Comhaltas through the years is invited to a get together in the village Heritage Centre, to reflect and reminisce on the activities of the branch and its outstanding success in the interim.

There will be music and stories, talk and tea, as organisers, performers and supporters mingle, recalling the many outstanding moments that has brought the branch to the present day.

From humble beginnings, the branch has progressed to become one of the leading branches in the countrywide Comhaltas family, winning traditional Irish music competitions at Cork County, Munster, and All-Ireland levels, at successive Fleadhanna through the intervening years.

Remarkably, all the members of the founding committee are still with us, and will be present at the celebratory concert to mark the auspicious occasion on Saturday, 6th April.

The programme will include All-Ireland winning singer Elle Marie O’Dwyer, who will be the M.C. for the evening.

Also on the programme will be Freemount’s other All-Ireland winning groups, including the Allow Céilí Band, and a ballad group. A feature of the evening will be a performance by the Freemount Pléireacha Group that recently won the All-Ireland competition, the branch’s latest All-Ireland successful group.

The branch’s first All-Ireland winning vocalist, Carmel Sheahan, will be there, as will the multi-All-Ireland winning Shandrum Ceili Band under the baton of their dynamic leader and tutor Alan Finn.

There will be performances from a dancing group, from entertainers Billy O’Brien and John Murphy, and a story teller.

The man credited with starting the whole phenomenon off, the then local national school teacher and musician Con Herbert, and a host of musicians from the early days of the branch in Freemount, will also be on hand to add to the joyful celebration.