An audience which well filled the Meeting House enjoyed a great feast of music and song on Friday February 20. Ballybay Community Choir led by Teresa Duffy and accompanied on guitar by Martin McCabe started and ended the evening with a mix of local and well-known songs. Lisa Fuller showed something of her versatility playing a variety of tunes on harp, low whistle and fiddle. Some members of the Ballybay Ukrainian community with their lively singing provided a contrast with the other acts each introduced by master of ceremonies Walter Pringle. Members of Tullycorbet Comhaltas Ceóltoirí Éireann played a mix of jigs, reels, hornpipes, etc, and introduced a ‘rising star’ flute player in the person of Anna Trappe. Ballybay Country Gospel Group concluded the first part before a short interval, then gave the second part a much-appreciated start. Tullycorbet CCÉ and the Community Choir also took part on the second part of the programme, and all present admired the solo singing and performance of Myroslava Ozhohina, daughter of Oksana Sapozhnikova who organized the Ukrainian participation.
Next at Cahans Meeting House will be very different – an evening on Friday March 20 (8pm) when Linda Ervine MBE from East Belfast will tell about Turas, an Irish language project in East Belfast. She is a language rights activist, an Ulster Irish speaker and a supporter of the Gaelic revival. She leads the Turas project which aims to connect people from Protestant communities to their own history with the Irish language. There may well also be a musical element to the evening, and supper!
Then on Saturday 28 March Cahans Meeting House Committee plan a coffee morning from 10.30am. Donations on the day will benefit Ballybay Cancer Society. There will also be a sale of quality vintage and modern goods, the proceeds from the sale going to Cahans Meeting House development.