Mullingar Town Band members were “over the moon” to be crowned Irish marching champions at St Loman’s GAA on Sunday, 21 July. The local band, won against competition from Arklow, Portarlington and Tallaght to take the national honours at the 2024 Irish Marching Association Championships.
An inspired Elvis Presley themed medley, with hits such as Can’t Help Falling In Love, Suspicious Minds and Hound Dog, helped lead the Mullingar band to victory.
Band Director, Kim Magee, said: “We are over the moon. We had three competitions this summer in Germany, Arklow and this week we hosted the finals competition, The Irish Championships.
“We have a lot of new members that marched with us this year and they did excellently to come away with the trophy.
“Last week, we came second in Arklow, and we knew it was a close second. While we gave it our all, we knew there was a few things we could improve on.”
“We spent the week implementing some changes and some visual effects and went into the show just to give it our all and finish the season. To come away with the championship trophy was a bonus.”
Earlier in 2024, Mullingar Town Band competed in Germany in the World Championships, where they were awarded with a Bronze Category Award, qualifying for the final 12 in that competition.
BIG THANKS
Kim continued: “It is a credit to all those who put in the hard work every summer such as the band members, team leaders and the parents and our support.
“I am delighted for everybody that we were able to finish the season on a high and the band has come so far from teaching them how to march to winning a championships.”
Although the weather was poor, Kim commented that the overall event “was very successful” with a good turnout.
“It was a committee decision to accept the role of hosting the competition,” stated Kim. “Our main organisers from the committee were Brendan Hoye and our Chairperson, Helen Hendry.
“We want to say a huge thank you to St Loman’s GAA who facilitated the venue and it was great to have the shelter for the audience. The Civil Defence were on site and very obliged.
“To all of our supporters who came out despite the conditions, they really helped the band. Everyone ran it together and did a great job.”
