Tag Archives: Clontibret

MONAGHAN AT PEACE PROMS 2015

by
Peace Proms 2015 at RDS Photo: © Michael Fisher

Peace Proms 2015 at RDS Photo: © Michael Fisher

It has been a great weekend of music and song at the Royal Dublin Society’s Simonscourt Hall in Ballsbridge in Dublin. This afternoon seven national schools from County Monaghan helped to form the large choir of schoolchildren performing at the Peace Proms 2015 along with the Cross Border Orchestra of Ireland. Last night (Saturday) the Model school from Monaghan town took part. This afternoon I met all seven schools from County Monaghan, who arrived at the complex at 11:30am for a rehearsal.

Peace Proms 2015 at RDS Photo: © Michael Fisher

Peace Proms 2015 at RDS Photo: © Michael Fisher

Two schools came from Carrickmacross, Bunscoil Lughaidh Naofa,  Cloughvalley, and St Joseph’s National School,  Farney Street. I also met pupils and their teachers from Knockconan National School, Emyvale, and my neighbours from  St Dympna’s National School, Tydavnet. There were also representatives from St. Louis Girls’ National School,  Park Road in Monaghan town; Scoil Mhuire,  Moys,   Clontibret  and finally Scoil Mhuire National School, Latton, Castleblayney.

Peace Proms 2015 at RDS Photo: © Michael Fisher

Peace Proms 2015 at RDS Photo: © Michael Fisher

The Cross Border Orchestra of Ireland (CBOI) was established in 1995 as a peace initiative and is now composed of 120 young people from all over Ireland – north and south. It encourages diversity through music and community. The CBOI is internationally recognised as one of Ireland’s flagship peace initiatives and has become one of the most acclaimed youth orchestras that Ireland has ever produced. The Orchestra is led  by some of Ireland’s top professional musicians including: Conductor, Gearóid Grant; Violinist, Patricia Treacy; Tenor, Emmanuel Lawler; and Uilleann Piper, Patrick Martin. The CBOI undertakes a National Spring Tour annually performing at: 

  • The Waterfront Hall, Belfast / the Ulster Hall, Belfast
  • The Kingfisher Hall, NUI, Galway / Leisureland, Galway
  • City Hall, Cork
  • The Hub, Kilkenny
  • City West, Dublin / the National Concert Hall, Dublin / the Helix, DCU, Dublin
  • Letterkenny Institute of Technology, Donegal
  • The Opera House, Derry
  • The INEC Killarney, Kerry
  • Limerick University
  • Dundalk Institute of Technology

The Orchestra has performed for:

  •  President McAleese at Áras an Uachtaráin
  •  Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle (Ensemble performance)
  • Many special international Ministerial gatherings at Slane Castle and Dublin Castle.
    Numerous national commemorations including:
  •  The Battle of the Boyne
  • 10th Anniversary of the Belfast Agreement
  • 30th Anniversary of the twinning of Listowel and Downpatrick
  • 400th Anniversary of the Flight of the Earls in Rome.

International tours and showcase of the best of Ireland:

  • ROYAL ALBERT HALL LONDON –  The CBOI performed to a capacity crowd at the Royal Albert Hall London in 2012 and is only the 3rd Irish orchestra in our history to have performed there.
  • WORLD EXPO SHANGHAI – The CBOI represented  Ireland, the UK and Europe at the historic World EXPO in Shanghai in 2010 where they received an award for the most “Outstanding International Performance”.
  • CARNEGIE HALL NEW YORK  – The CBOI has toured to the United States many times selling out prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall, New York, Chicago Symphony Hall, and Boston Symphony Hall. The CBOI as also sold out concerts in eight cities throughout California including San Fransisco and Los Angeles
  • EUROPE – The CBOI has performed in many European countries such as Italy, England, Czech Republic and Finland.

    Peace Proms 2015 at RDS Photo: © Michael Fisher

    Peace Proms 2015 at RDS Photo: © Michael Fisher

 The CBOI plays a vital role in enhancing Music and Arts education in Ireland thourgh “Peace Proms”. Peace Proms is a choral education project for Primary Schools devised and delivered by the Cross Border Orchestra of Ireland.  Over 15,000 children from 300 schools participate in Peace Proms annually. It is not a “classical orchestra”. Their music  highlights the pop, folk and traditional cultures of the island of Ireland. They use all the instruments of a full symphony orchestra but include traditional instruments for example Lambeg Drums, Uilleann Pipes and Highland Pipes.  Many of the CBOI’s commissions have been written by Brian Byrne who is recognised as one of Ireland leading contemporary composers and arrangers. Based in Los Angeles, Brian is an IFTA winner and OSCAR nominee.

Peace Proms 2015 Commemorative Brochure

Peace Proms 2015 Commemorative Brochure

Over the past 18 years, the CBOI has played an important role in building and nurturing vital cross border and cross community relations. We are delighted to have recently established a link with the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association Northern Ireland Branch and look forward to showcasing our combined cultural talents and working with them for a better future.
Belfast Odyssey Arena Sunday 8th February  3pm Belfast Peace Proms
Limerick  Saturday 28th February

CLONTIBRET ‘INVASION’

by

ClontibretIt was hardly an ‘invasion’ in the true military sense. Nothing like the 200,00 Allied forces that invaded Iraq in 2003 or the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 or of Poland in 1939. Yet Peter Robinson’s nocturnal excursion along with a group of 150 loyalists across the border into the quiet County Monaghan village of Clontibret on August 7 1986 was dubbed an ‘invasion’ by some sections of the media.

It was more like a sortie, a raid, an incursion or an infiltration. His intention was to show what he believed were the gaps in cross-border security, following the signing of the Anglo-Irish agreement in 1985. Yet it was the RUC who tipped off the Gardaí about his plans, according to Stormont papers recently released by the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.

Historian Éamon Phoenix who has researched them says that a note from a Northern Ireland Office official from the Political Affairs Division to the British Ambassador to Dublin refers to about 150 loyalists, “some wearing paramilitary uniforms and carrying cudgels” entering Clontibret.

They daubed the slogan “Ulster is Awakening” on a Garda station and from what I myself remember of the day in question, on some walls including that of a Church of Ireland school. The crowd also injured two Gardaí.

The BBC reports that the note said: “The RUC’s action in tipping off the Gardai during the night of 6-7 August about the incursion by Peter Robinson and his loyalist thugs was also warmly appreciated in Dublin, according to Michael Lillis [of the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs].”

The NIO official who wrote the note told the ambassador: “We have done our little bit here by holding Irish hands in the [Anglo-Irish] Secretariat and feeding them with material for their hourly reports to their ministers during periods of particular tension.” The report notes that the crowd dispersed when gardai fired shots into the air.

“Robinson, who appears to have lingered behind deliberately, was arrested and held in custody for 32 hours (during which he refused all sustenance provided by the gardai, preferring the wholesome Ulster food brought to him by his wife) before being charged with four offences, including assaulting gardai and causing wilful damage.”

Although Mr Robinson was already in Ulster, this reference is to the breakfast brought to him by his wife Iris during his detention at Monaghan Garda station.

The official noted that Mr Robinson (who first appeared in court in Ballybay) was granted bail to appear in court in Dundalk on 14 August.

Other loyalist shows of strength planned to take place on the same night as Clontibret were limited by RUC activity to Swatragh in County Derry where a group of masked men, some carrying firearms, marched through the nationalist village, causing some damage to property. Both incidents were condemned by the British and Irish governments. For its part, the DUP hailed the operation “as a clear indication of the absence of cross-border security”.

A separate file reveals that Peter Robinson and his party leader, Ian Paisley, felt they “narrowly escaped with their lives” and made a formal protest to the British Foreign Office about inadequate protection, following a court appearance in Dundalk over the Clontibret incident.

Peter Robinson later took over from Ian Paisley as DUP leader and First Minister of Northern Ireland.