Spink Comhaltas qualified for funding in May 2018 from The Arts Council/ The Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht/ Music Network as part of the Music Capital Scheme 2017.

One year on, here is an update on what this funding has allowed us to do.

We updated our already comprehensive music instrument bank further and invested in high quality piano, drum-set, cello, flutes and concertina. These instruments bring our total instrument bank to almost 50 instruments. We make these instruments available to our junior members as a cost effective way to access high quality instruments. The Spink Comhaltas instrument bank has been a key part of our business plan over the last number of years. It has allowed us to develop from having a single Grupa Cheoil of primarily tin whistles in the Laois Fleadh 2012 to our performance in Laois Fleadh 2019 when we had 4 Grupa Cheoils (U12, U15, U18 and O18) as well as 4 céilí bands (U12, U15, U18 and O18).

The instruments we purchased were used as part of a fund raising concert in March where our Spink Trad Orchestra performed to a sell out audience of 500 people and raised €9,189 for MS Laois.

Over the lifetime of the instruments, we expect a significant number of young musicians across Laois will learn to play music at a very cost effective price by utilising our instrument bank. We look forward to giving you an update next year on our 2nd anniversary of this funding.

Buíochas le The Arts Council/ The Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht/ Music Network.