Ardnashee choir to hit the right note at Derry Feis

Derry Feis is 101 years old this Easter. To celebrate the turning of its second century, Derry Now will feature a weekly interview with some of the incredibly talented stalwarts of this unique cultural event. 

Gifted teacher, Bríd Cradden, who is currently in the middle of rehearsing the talented Ardnashee School and College choir for their Feis Dhoire Cholmcille 2023 competitions, is in the Feis Footlights this week. 

“It is a joy. A joy is the best way I can describe it,” said Bríd Cradden, speaking about her experience as musical director and conductor of the Ardnashee School and College choir.

Ardnashee Choir.

Derry Now caught up with Bríd just as she was filling out her Derry Feis entry form for the choir competitions, which take place in Holy Week in St Mary’s College, in the city.

“We usually enter the Unison Choir, which means the young people in the Ardnashee choir go in against all their peers in the town. I don’t put them into a special competition. This year they are singing, ‘The Bare Necessities’ and ‘True Colours’.

“However,” she added with a smile, “this year I have decided to push them a wee bit further and we are going to enter the Irish Song as well and we will be singing ‘Dilín Ó Deamhas’.

“I love the Feis choir competition. I love seeing other people hearing our children singing. I love shocking people. People have a preconceived idea about what our children are going to be like, so I love putting them into a competition at the Derry Feis and just blowing everybody away.

“We practise from 2pm to 2.30pm every Tuesday. Now, choirs are supposed to be uniform and sing together with one voice but I have a choir full of wee individuals and the sound they create and the energy and the passion is second to none. It is a joy, it is a joy is the best way I can describe it,” said Bríd.

Bríd, who hails originally from Pennyburn said she had been going to Derry Feis for as long as she could remember “being alive on this earth”.

Bríd and Paul.

“My mammy, Ailish [Cradden née McMillan] was a member of Mr James MacCafferty’s  Little Gaelic Singers and toured America when she was about 10 years old. 

“I was with Mr MacCafferty for as long as I can remember. He was, without a shadow of a doubt, the best music teacher I have ever experienced in my life. He was just amazing and he really made me love music and singing. 

“So that’s where it started and, of course, I went to Mary McLaughlin for Irish dancing and Christina Hegarty for speech and drama. There were times I was doing my Derry Feis singing competition in an Irish dancing frock. 

“I lived at the Derry Feis for a week. It was brilliant. As a young child, I remember you loved going to the championships at night and you loved going to the big singing competitions at night. The whole experience was fabulous and then you would slip over to the Hungry Horse in Foyle Street for your fish and chips,” said Bríd.

Ardnashee Choir.

“It is all the memories and your friends,” said Bríd. “It was just brilliant. It was nearly like a way of life. It was the Derry Feis and that was it. We had a caravan and my daddy, Keith, never got near it at Easter because we were always at the Derry Feis.”

Bríd recalled giving up speech and drama and Irish dancing in her early teens.

“But I stuck with the singing because that was my thing,” she said. “I loved it. I was fortunate that Mr MacCafferty was there all through my formative teenage years as well. It was when I was at university, Mr MacCafferty passed away. 

“I also went to Una [O’Somachain], his daughter and Una was just amazing as well. Now I am a conductor of my own choir, so much of the way I conduct comes from Una because she was so elaborate. She was great. 

“I was also in the MacCafferty junior choir with Una and Mr MacCafferty accompanied us. I did all my singing grades with them as well. We used to go up to Una’s house after school on a Monday to do our grades. I remember Mr MacCafferty pushing us through our Grade 8 before we went to university. 

And you were still singing in the Derry Feis at that age too. That was my life at the Derry Feis,” said Bríd with evident pride.

Bríd, who is married to talented multi-instrumentalist Paul Cutliffe, one half of the famous ‘We Love Sax’, has also passed on her love of music to her children, Aoibh, Cara, Orlaigh, Caoimhe.

She said: “All of the children play instruments and they have also entered the Trad group competitions at Derry Feis and taken part in a few fleadhanna.

“It started over covid and it was really to give them a focus because everything stopped. We wanted to keep them going with the music and also  keep them off the tablets and phones.

“They were and are learning their instruments at An Cultúrlann, so we started doing a wee seisún every week so the  rest of the children at An Cultúrlann could join in and we could keep the music, tunes and learning going. 

Ardnashee Choir.

“The wanes have had a few wee gigs themselves as ‘The Cutliffe’s’ but, we are going into the teenage years now so we’ll see how it goes,” grinned Bríd.

Bríd described Derry Feis as a “great platform” for people who may never ever perform again. 

She said: “They will always have the memory of the Derry Feis. It is something you may never do again. You may never get the opportunity to sing in front of an audience or dance or do verse speaking but you will always have that memory and I think that is priceless.

“It is kind of magic. Everyone says ‘I remember singing an Irish song in the Derry Feis Under 6 competition. Those memories are magic.”