In pictures: St Catherine's Accordion Band, Killybegs headed for New York City

St 'Accordion Band, Killybegs has been selected to lead the Donegal Association in the New York City St Patrick’s Day parade on March 16. Please click on the arrows to go through the gallery

The band were left completely devastated in 2020 when their committee took the difficult decision to cancel their trip to New York last minute because of the Coronavirus Pandemic after months of planning and fundraising. 

The decision was taken for the welfare of their members and that of their community. However, the band members and their families were faced with the reality that they would potentially lose everything as New York and indeed USA were still open for travel.

Thanks to the tireless and continuous work of Liberty Travel in Letterkenny, the band have managed to retrieve almost 70% of what was paid out. Thankfully, the families were refunded although the band lost thousands which were unrecoverable.

However, the band committee have always kept the dream alive and never gave up hope of one day doing this trip with the band and has been working tirelessly behind the scenes to make it happen. 

The band will now be parading on Fifth Avenue in just a few short weeks and are super excited to be representing their wee town and county on the biggest stage.

The band are also taking part in the Bayonne St Patrick's Day Parade in New Jersey on March 17.

“We have rehearsals for a few hours every week and the kids are really committed and working very hard, they are a credit to their families, their communities and most importantly to themselves,” they said.

It’s the opportunity of a lifetime, 39 band members will be taking part in the parades and the current members are aged from eight upwards. There will be 74 people travelling to New York altogether with most making it their family holiday this year.

St Catherine’s band has been recognised before: 

For St Patrick’s Day in 2010 and 2012, they travelled to Seattle, Washington, and London, respectively; and the band also took part in many of the International Rose of Tralee festival parades as well as leading the Ireland and USA Soccer Teams at an International Friendly Match in the Aviva Stadium in 2018.

The band have also performed in EuroDisney Paris in 2017.

The band are under the guidance of our four fantastic teachers, Karen Devine (Music), Sharon Anderson (Choreographer), Sean Dorrian (Drums) and Annemarie O’Donnell (Marching).  Karen and Sharon are also performing with the band in New York with Sharon being a lifelong member of the band, she will be joined this time by her daughter, sister and nieces who are all performing with the band.

“This is a huge trip to undertake and as you can imagine a lot of fundraising has been done, the band would like to thank the parents, their local community and surrounding areas for their continuous support and look forward to representing you all in the Big Apple,” they added.

“We would also like to thank everyone who has contributed in any way towards the band’s trip. As there are too many to mention and with the fear of forgetting anyone, we will not mention any names.”