Successful night at Scor final event

Successful night at Scor final event

3 February 2016

A LARGE audience at the East Down Scor final held in St Michael’s Hall in Finnis last Sunday night was royally entertained. 

Pasty Russell was Fear an Ti, with the  evening’s entertainment getting underway with Saul GAC’s Gareth McGreevy singing Amhran Na bhFiann, while the first act on the floor was the ceili dancing, with only Ballygalget participating.

The club’s dancers, Lisa Branniff, Charlenn Lennon, Gerry Lennon, Fiona McAulfield, Kerry Fisher and Alanna Savage were all in fine form and Ballygalget will now represent East Down in the county final which takes place this Sunday in Banbridge Parish Centre starting at 7pm sharp. 

First up in the solo singing section was Castlewellan’s Connladh McDonnagh, who was followed by  Saul’s Lucy Connor, Donna McKeating (Ballygalget), Teconnaught’s John McGrath, Loughinisland’s Christopher Noade and, from the host club, Patrick Doyle, who was declared the winner. He will be joined in the county final by Christopher Noade.

The recitation/storytelling category winner was Sharlene Nesson from Darragh Cross with her rendition of the ballad of Hughie McGuigan, with Saul’s Gareth McGreevy the runner-up with his performance of Drumakilly Devil. Other participants included Dromara’s Kathleen Lucas and Castlewellan’s Michelle Doran.

Dundrum was the only club to takes part in the instrumental music section with the audience entertained by Seamus Garland, Martin Coughlin, John Boden, Eva McAligh and Paul Madden.

In the ballad group section, Bryansford took the honours ahead of Saul in an extremely tight section which also featured Loughinisland and Kilclief.

Drumaness and Kilcoo were the only clubs to feature in the Leiri (former novelty act) category, and both have progressed to represent East Down in the county final next weekend. 

There were no competitors in the set dancing section, with the Scor committee deciding to revert back to the old system when the Triath Na Quiestionna (question time) was part of the Scor night and not a separate evening as was decided by the National Scor committee. 

East Down chairman Sean Mac Caisin thanked the adjudicators for the mammoth task they had in choosing winners and runners-up for the county final. He also thanked the clubs and parishes who put their respective halls at the Board’s disposal. Particular thanks were extended to the Teconnaught and Dundrum clubs for use of their halls for the semi-finals, to the tea ladies at all events and ticket sellers.

Special thanks to Fear an Ti Patsy Russell, the Scor committee under the chairmanship of James Magennis and secretary Brian Kennedy, and members Delia McLaughlin, Micheal Laverty, Gerard Murnin, Martin Fitzsimons and Patsy Russell for their ongoing hard work to get all clubs involved.

Sean also made an urgent appeal to East Down clubs to organise Ceili/set dancing teams for next year’s Scor Na Og and Scor Na Sinsear competitions.