A proud history of marching bands in Mayo county town

by Tom Gillespie

GOING back well over a century there has always been a tradition of marching bands in Castlebar, no doubt because it was the main garrison town in the county.

A thesis by Joanna McEvilly traced the history of what is now the Castlebar Concert Band.

Over the years it was known by different names - Castlebar Brass Band, Castlebar Temperance Band, St. Joseph’s Silver Band, Castlebar Town Band and Castlebar Concert Band, the name by which it is known today.

In the 1960s my father, Dick Gillespie, played trumpet with St. Joseph’s Silver Band.

In particular I recall, when I was a Mass server, both he and Jimmy Feeney marched and played in the Corpus Christi processions.

One I remember commenced at the Sacred Heart Home and proceeded to the Mall. One of the standard tunes they played was ‘Faith of Our Fathers’.

I did try my best at learning to play an instrument but failed miserably. As my father played the trumpet I wanted to follow in his footsteps and I was taken to a musical instructor who lived in Brownville Flats (off Main Street).

However, I was missing my two top front teeth and therefore could not blow into the mouthpiece.

Instead, he coerced me into taking up the violin, and I lasted maybe five or six weeks before I chucked in it. Many years later Mrs. Hynes on the Newport Road tried her best to teach me the piano, again to no avail.

While the musical strain in the family did skip a generation, my daughter Ineke played cornet with the Castlebar Concert Band when they gave recitals in London at Easter 1987, and played at St. Joseph’s Centre, Empire Way, Wembley, on April 18, 19 and 20 and at Hay Lane on Sunday morning, April 19.

But getting back to St. Jospeh’s Silver Band, I do remember a huge fundraising campaign that was undertaken in the ‘60s when a ‘silver circle’ draw was organised to raise funds to purchase an array of instruments.

We sold the weekly cards for the draw which proved a huge success and was probably the first such ‘silver circle’ run in the town, for which court approval had to be sought.

The conductor then was Leonard Sheridan (B.Mus.), a music teacher with Mayo Vocational Education Committee, and his input proved a major impetus in establishing the band, which has since grown from strength to strength.

The members of the Castlebar St. Joseph’s Brass Band in the 1960s, under Leonard Sheridan, were Vincent Murray, Tom Brett, Jimmy Feeney, Michael Heverin, Noel Feeney, Jimmy Bourke, Noel Quigley, Michael Rice, Tom Bourke, Declan Hynes, Sean Bourke, Michael Basquill, Tommy Joe Prendergast, Philip Ainsworth, Andy Feeney, Thomas (Sonny) Guthrie, Francis Nolan, Kevin Bourke, John McHugh and Dermot Lally.

Michael Basquill was appointed marching leader.

Mr. Leonard was replaced by Paddy Jones of Foxford and in the early 1980s, Tom Bourke from Moneen, a fine musician in his own right, was appointed bandmaster.

Tom had been a member of the Royal Chords Showband, fronted by his father Kevin, and was a member of the Castlebar Band under Leonard Sheridan. He went on to be the musical director with Brendan Bowyer and the Big 8 Showband in Las Vegas.

In her research Joanna McEvilly discovered that when the British Army were billeted in Castlebar in the early 1900s each regiment usually had its own band and regularly gave recitals on the Mall and marched from the military barracks to the Church of Ireland for services.

She found it was a former British Army bandmaster, J.P. Mullins, who was mainly responsible for organising the Castlebar Brass Band in the early days.

It appears this band was an amalgamation of various other bands, some of whom were associated with another British Army man, Drum Major Kells.

In the 1920s the Temperance Band made a name for itself under bandleader Jimmy Horkan.

Others to lead the outfit in the late 1920s and ‘30s were Johnny Gavin, Charlie Guthrie and Jack Cahill.

Emigration and a lack of recruitment of new membership had an adverse affect on the band. However, individual musicians did play at the annual Corpus Christi processions and local football matches.

Members of the Temperance Band in the mid '20s consisted of Joe McGlyskey, John O’Malley, John Flannelly, Jimmy Connor, Harry Ainsworth, Mick Dunne, Martin O’Neill, Pat McGreal, William Downes, E. Lyons, John Gallagher, Walter Burke, John McLoughlin, John Quinn, Anthony Loftus, Eddie Lennon, Tommy Hamrock, Eddie O’Malley, Tommy Hamrock Jnr., Tommy Mitchel, J. Garvey, Pat Conway, Jim Smith, Jack Farnan, Sam McCormack, Anthony McHale, Paddy Horkan, John Bourke, Sean Walsh, William McGlynskey, Paddy Dunne, Paddy Heneghan, William Doyle, John Tierney, Sonny Horan, John McCormack, Anthony Hynes, Alfie Johnson, T.H. Gillespie (my grandfather), Pat Griffin, P.A. Horkan, Pat Concannon, Dr. Faughner, William Staunton, Tom McCarthy, Maurice Dunne and Michael Harrison.

Other members included Tommy Ainsworth, Tom Guthrie, Jim Scott, Paddy Brady, William Cresham, John Walsh, John Forkan, Mickie Cahill, John Dargan, Paddy Ainsworth, George Lane, Joe Chambers, George Smith, P. McAndrew, and band leader Jimmy Horkan.

I know my father, Dick, as well as many others, were taught to play the trumpet by Sonny Comer, a talented musician who resided on Staball. He had a disability with his feet and used to manoeuvre about using his hands.