Young Kerry trad stars enjoy fitting send off to NYC

CEOLTOIRÍ Na Ríochta, an award-winning group of musicians made up of teenagers from both the greater North Kerry area as well as a Corkbased harpist and whistler, Kellianne French, enjoyed the perfect send-off on Sunday evening ahead of their oncein-a-lifetime NYC adventure.

Back in January, it was announced that the group had received a much-coveted invitation to New York to perform as part of the city’s annual St Patrick week-long festivities.

Originally, the group were just supposed to perform at both Kerry Hall and AOH Division 3 Pearl River in the days leading up to March 17 but this week, this already incredible invitation got that much sweeter after the group were formally invited to march in the New York City St Patrick’s Day proper.

This latest offer was described by the group this week as “the icing on the cake” with Sheila Enright from the group telling The Kerryman that excitement levels are through the roof for the parade.

“We’re totally, totally excited about it. It’s a massive opportunity for all of them. They are a great bunch of musicians and singers and dancers. We’re going to be with the marching bands and we’re going to be performing our own tunes and we’ll be marching along with the other bands. There’ll be great memories made and we’ve been practicing hard for it,” she said.

Ahead of jetting off (they flew out on Tuesday), the group held a farewell concert in the Presentation Secondary School in Listowel which had over 150 people in attendance with Sheila describing it as “one of the best shows” she had ever attended.

“It was truly enjoyable and it included music, singing, dancing, (set, step and Sean nós), whistling and recitation,” she said.

The original invitation for the group to spend the St Patrick’s weeks festivities in New York came from the Pearl River School of Music, a group which can boast very strong links to Kerry itself with its founder, Margie Mulvihill, being a Moyvane native.

Of course, all work and no play would make for a dull trip, so in between performing, the group hopes to take in the sights of New York, including Staten Island, Central Park and the Empire State Building.