Last Thursday, The Clongowes Trad group, led by Mrs and Mr Heslin, was warmly welcomed to the head offices of Trócaire in Maynooth to participate in the launch of the annual music event for charity ‘Trad for Trócaire’. There was a brief presentation by Trocaire’s Community fundraising officer, Katie Bolger on the work that that the charity does around the world and how this particular event – in conjunction with Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann – has grown over the last few years. This was followed by a talk by the director of public engagement, Fintan Maher who welcomed the Clongowes musicians to the event.
The group then performed a great program of music and song with the attending crowd demanding an encore, which they were only too happy to provide. It was a great honour for the trad group to provide the entertainment at this event and they are delighted to be forging such strong links with this great organisation.
Catch them live
While this event took place during the day, you can catch the group live (and kicking) ‘for one night only’ in Connolly’s pub Ballagh on October 6th from 7.30 -9.30 PM.
Under the leadership of Ms Catherine Heslin, the Clongowes Trad Group is collaboration between staff and students across all years. ‘Trad for Trócaire’ is a national event promoting the use of Irish music sessions as a means of raising money for Trócaire, the official overseas development agency of the Catholic Church in Ireland. The Clongowes group has participated in this event for the past three years and have raised over €1,000 to date for this great charity.
More pictures of the event here
Mr Declan O’Keeffe, Head of Communications