New Inn 2009

The Galway Mummer Festival took place in the New Inn Community Centre on Saturday 3rd January and Sunday 4th of January. Our senior group made a return after a few years break, anchored once again by Mike Nash on the Saturday night. The group hadn't much joy in the competition end of things ending in 3rd place, with Rahan and Lackagh taking 1st and 2nd and Ballymacward in 4th place. The only joy on the night was Ciara Stapleton winning the best overall musician in the competition. Our group award went to Yvonne Barrett who gave a star performance once again singing and acting. The main dissapointment in the group was the failure of Mike Nash to win one of the overall awards. Mike was back to his usual best, the rest did him good. The group were happy with the overall performance.

On Sunday we had two junior groups competing. Both groups were very young and gave away many years of experience to Rahan and Lackagh. Our oldest member taking part was only 15 in an under 18 competition. Once again we hadn't much to cheer about in the group competitions, but had probably our best year ever in the individual awards. We won three out of the five awards on offer and for the first time ever, one of our Wren Boys won an award. This honour fell to Paul Holohan who won the best story teller of the competition at only twelve years of age. He gave an outstanding performance. Kate Forde was an obvious winner when she got the best flute player award and new member Michael Gardiner won the dancer of the competition. The group awards went to concertina player Shauna Coppinger and making his stage debut with us, Mark Holohan won the group award in the Wren Boys. Over all, our two junior groups performed excellently and will push for overall honours in the next few years if they stay together.