Shandrum for St. Patrick’s Festival

This year has been a year like no other. So many events that people would normally be celebrating with family and friends have had to be cancelled or postponed. As many of you will now know, this year’s St. Patrick’s Festival is going virtual with a 5 day extravaganza celebrating our Culture and Heritage.
It is a great honour for us in Cork to have the North Cork based Shandrum Ceili Band participating in this event. The Shandrum are one of the most popular Céili Bands in the country and have always been in high demand. Sadly, due to the situation we all found ourselves in during the past year, they have been unable to play a live gig since March
2020, when they rose the roof in Mullingar in front of a packed venue as a fundraiser for the Fleadh. So, for them to once again have the chance to play together as a band was a great opportunity.
I was privileged to be one of a tiny audience of four at the recent recording for their feature in the St. Patrick’s Festival in the wonderful surroundings of Doneraile Court. Janet Schley and the staff in Doneraile made us all feel very welcome and it was a joy to see the place come to life with traditional Irish music played at it’s very best.
Though it had been twelve months since the band had played together, it was as if that gap had never been. You could see the immediate bonding together and that great sense of camaraderie.
Doneraile Court was the perfect venue for an occasion such as this. You could feel that sense of history and it just seemed so fitting that the house which is now owned by the State should be the backdrop for this great cultural event.
On the day, the band were joined by Rockchapel native Cian Broderick, an All Ireland winning Sean-nos dancer, who has performed with the Shandrum on many occasions. Cian is also a member of the All Ireland winning Crossfields Céili Band.
The cameraman on the day was Cal Callaghan and the finished performance is a standout one. We were delighted to have Vale Star photographer Steve Murphy present to capture some memorable moments. The St. Patrick’s Festival will run from Friday March 12th to Wednesday March 17th and it is only fitting that the Shandrum, one of the very few Céili Bands to have won the All Ireland Céili Band Championship three years in a row, would be one of the headline acts to be viewed, not only in Ireland, but across the world, as part of this great celebration of our National Culture.
We encourage you to join in on the various platforms during these five days.