The History of St. Albans Branch

During the autumn of 1975 a group of people namely Peter and Katy Fahy, Pat and Bernie Keegan, Joe and the late W. Downey, The late Jim King, Tony Collins and the late Paddy McLoughlin, got together to form a group to play and teach children Traditional Irish Music, they called it ‘Cois Tinne’ (Around the Fireside).

News soon spread and several more people became interested and eventually an open meeting was held at the London Road Club in February 1976.

At this meeting it was decided by those present to form a committee and the following were elected. Chairman Pat Judge, Vice-Chairman Phyllis Dwyer (Maloney), Secretary Jim King. It was also decided to apply to Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann to join as the St. Albans Branch.

In due course, it was confirmed and we were accepted,, further officers were elected, and the music lessons grew, and various teachers came and taught. Eventually Mrs Ann Caufield came from Luton and taught the children and our classes kept getting bigger. The parents got very involved and by the end of 1976 we had our first Junior Ceili Band, and competed in our first Fleadh in London.

There are a lot of people who gave of their time and energy and worked very hard to make St. Albans Branch so successful and we are proud to say the Branch was 30 years old in February 2006.

Click the ‘’Archive’ button to see more photos from the past.....

 

Pat Judge who was the first Chairman of the St. Albans Branch Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann