Search Results for 'Michael Tomkins'

A marching pipe band is an ensemble of people playing bagpipes and drummers which requires coordination, discipline and timing. Every step should align with the band’s formation and rhythm and they should be visually and musically synchronised. They are usually led by a drum major with a mace to signal movements such as starting, stopping, wheeling etc. So we thought today to show you some of those bands who have graced our streets and entertained us over the years.

This is the time of the year when our thoughts turn to schoolbooks, copy books, pens and pencils, bus schedules, etc, as we prepare our children and grandchildren for the new school year. Inevitably it brings our thoughts back to our own school years, the friendships we formed, the teachers we liked or disliked. In those first days in class you felt you had been abandoned by your mother as she left you in with a crowd of complete strangers presided over by an adult that you had never seen before. In the case of anyone who went to Scoil Fhursa that adult was known as Bean Uí Duignan. She was a saint who quickly became a surrogate mother to every child that entered her classroom, walked them up and down the clós during sosanna, and prepared them for whatever was ahead.