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A big weekend of gigs for the Irish Festival and St Patricks Day

Posted on by craigmilne

We’re up for a busy St Patrick’s weekend full of gigs around Brisbane city. To make it a bit easier for you to catch us playing, here’s a breakdown for you. Hope to see you there!

Saturday 16th March

10.30am – Parade

No photo description available.


12.30pm – Gilhooley’s, Cnr Albert & Charlotte St
1pm – O’Malley’s – Wintergarden Shopping Centre, 171-209 Queen St
2pm – Irish Murphy’s – Cnr George St and Elizabeth St
3pm – O’Malley’s – Wintergarden Shopping Centre, 171-209 Queen St
5pm – O’Malley’s – Wintergarden Shopping Centre, 171-209 Queen St


Sunday 17th March – St Patrick’s Day


12.30pm – O’Malley’s – Wintergarden Shopping Centre, 171-209 Queen St
3pm – O’Malley’s – Wintergarden Shopping Centre, 171-209 Queen St
3pm – Finn McCool’s – 295 Brunswick St, Fortitude Valley
4pm – Irish Murphy’s – Cnr George St and Elizabeth St
5pm – O’Malley’s – Wintergarden Shopping Centre, 171-209 Queen St
6pm – Story Bridge Hotel, Kangaroo Point
7.30pm – Finn McCool’s – 295 Brunswick St, Fortitude Valley
10pm – Finn McCool’s – 295 Brunswick St, Fortitude Valley


A Pipe Band Poem

Posted on by craigmilne

Back in 1967 the Queensland Irish Association Pipe Band took a trip down to Sydney for the Australian Championships.  Father Dennis Power, a piper, who was in the band at the time wrote a poem capturing the names of all the band members who were on the trip.  The poem itself was also set to the air “Men of the West”.

So what are you waiting for – start up the recording provided below the poem and sing along!

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Men of the West

St Patrick’s Day 2018

Posted on by craigmilne

St Patrick’s day 2018 was a big day for the band kicking off at 10:30am leading the St Patrick’s day parade through Brisbane city followed by numerous gigs around Brisbane CBD and Fortitude Valley finishing up at Finn McCool’s at 10:30pm  – a full 12 hours later! The band’s four new side drummers marched with us in this parade and did a great job.

The band performed three concerts in Queen Street Mall during the afternoon before splitting to meet the demand for appearances at Irish pubs throughout Brisbane CBD and Fortitude Valley.   There were three gigs in Mick O’Malley’s, one at Irish Murphy’s and three at Finn McCool’s.

The band all met up again in the Valley at Finn McCool’s for the last gig of the day.  It was a really big day with plenty of water and a few pints of Guinness in between gigs.

Jan Dooley Award2018The band also won the inaugural Jan Dooley St. Patrick’s Day Parade Best Float Award!  Our band has been marching in every St Patrick’s Day parade in Brisbane since the first parade in 1990.

Visit our gallery for more photographs of St Patrick’s Day 2018.

 

Annual Family Festival Fun Day – Willawong

Posted on by craigmilne

The band was out at the Annual Festival Family day hosted by the Queensland Gaelic Football and Hurling Association on Sunday 12th March.   It was a great event with a lot to see and do including, novelty races, live Irish music (including QIAPB), Irish dancing and Gaelic sports exhibitions

In between the rain we led the teams onto the field for their games and performed a short concert – a great warm-up for us in preparation for the biggest day of the year for the band – St Patrick’s Day.

GAAFamilyDayMarch2018_6It was a great day out for the band with 4 learner drummers making their debut as well as being issued with their band uniform – well most of it! (Spot what’s missing).

Band Workshop – Warwick 2018

Posted on by craigmilne

The band spent the weekend of the 12-14th of January at O’Mahoney’s Hotel in Warwick brushing off the cobwebs from the festive season.  It was a weekend of work on the practice chanters, working on bag pressure, chanter tuning and even some theory.

With temperatures hitting 39.7C on the Saturday the air-conditioned bar was the perfect (and only) cool place to practice!