The Down Rose / Clonduff PRO / Ciara Kelly sets off on Monday 13th August for the final leg of her quest to be crowned the 59th Rose of Tralee! Her colleagues on the Clonduff Executive organised a great send off for her on Friday 10th August with a fantastic programme of traditional music, song and dance.
After the Chairman, Paudie Matthews’ welcome Thomas ‘Tooter’ Murnin took on the mantle of Fear an Ti and kept the programme moving along in his own inimitable ‘Tooter’ style. There was a great array of home-grown (or settled) talent to showcase all that is good about the Clonduff Community. Many thanks to Paul Kelly (Yellow Road) for supplying the excellent sound system – he and the Magee Family opened the show with a programme of traditional music followed by the Kearney sisters – Kylah and Cailli – giving a beautiful exhibition of Irish Dancing; then it was the turn of Aoife Trainor accompanied by Cora Magee which was followed up by Grace Clancy accompanied by Paul Kelly. Then it was the turn of Daithi (aka Tooter) to interview Ciara – he had really done his homework on the ‘wee girl from Cabra’ and may have caused her some hilarious embarrassment at times. Ciara finished her interview with her self-penned poem that she wrote for the Down Final (apparently she cannot recite in the Rose Festival despite having won numerous Scór titles for Recitation [and a County title in Tráth na gCeist]). The Junior Ballad Group that reached the Ulster Final in January then took to the stage with the talented Grace Clancy doing an excellent stand in for the Gaeltacht-tied Kayleigh McPolin. Then the only male member of the group Jordan McPolin closed the first part with a solo rendition of ‘Life is a River’ and he opened the next part with ‘The Auctioneer’. In between Jordan’s songs a delightful supper prepared by Luigi Andre was served to all present. The Fear an Ti’s son Odhran Murnin gave an amazing performance of ‘The Parting Glass’ before the beautiful and talented Niamh Fearon took the stage. The Clonduff All Ireland Ballad Group Champions 2017 performed ‘The Blackbird’ – one of their winning songs before leading the crowd in the singing of ‘The Rose of Tralee’ – they were joined onstage by the Down Rose Ciara and then Tooter for what should have been the finale but that fell to the Clonduff Limerick Man Eddie Clancy who was coaxed onstage for his party piece.
There were six raffle prizes and when the destination of these were decided an auction took place for ‘Tommy Kelly’s Farm’ – well his hand-crafted farmyard! Tooter was the auctioneer and bidding was keen and a handsome sum was secured for the farm – the purchaser being none other than the Club Chairman!
Chairman Paudie brought the evening to a close at midnight and invited Ciara to have the last word –she said she was speechless but did manage to thank all for the support given her on her Rose Journey – it was one of her best night’s ever. She said her chosen charity was initially Southern Area Hospice but following the tragic death of Clonduff member Pearce Brannigan in June she had decided to split her funds with The Hospice and the NI Heartbeat Foundation in Pearce’s honour. (Incidentally a fundraising night for The Heartbeat Foundation will take place in the Club in September).
Massive Best Wishes Ciara for the next 10 days or so – enjoy every moment and as the Chairman advised – ‘Be Yourself’ – it’ll take you a long way!
