Cork Choir Festival - May '24

On Thursday the 2nd of May 2024 our school choir travelled to Cork to compete in the Cork Choral Festival. The choir have been rehearsing and practising their songs for the past two months and they were finally ready for the competition. The choir had an early start in the morning and they had to be in school at 5:45, after a quick roll call the group got on the bus and headed off for Cork. After driving for about two hours the group stopped in Cashel, Co.Tipperary for a quick toilet and food break before getting back on the bus for the last little bit of their journey. When they were nearly in Cork Ms.Aylmer got up on the bus and led a vocal warm-up with the group. After a short 3 hours, the choir had finally arrived in Cork City.

The group got off the bus and headed into City Hall. Once they got inside City Hall they did a quick warm-up and sang through both of their songs before heading into the hall. Once they got into the hall they sat down in their seats. After a while the artistic director of the festival Peter Stobart got up on stage and introduced the festival and the schools that were going to be competing that day, then the Lord Mayor of Cork, Kiernan McCarthy got up on stage and gave a few words of advice before the competition started. St.Davids were first up and they performed two beautiful renditions of Suil a Ruin by Traditional, arr, Ruth Elaine Schram (B.1956) and Storm by James M. DesJardins. After the choir competed they got to sit down and watch the other schools compete which was a great experience for the choir to see other choirs. After all the choirs competed the awards were given out and St.Davids placed 4th out of 7 schools.

The choir then left the City Hall as they had free time. The students then had around four hours of free time, students could go shopping and explore Cork City, most of the students decided to go get food. After their free time, the choir headed back to City Hall where they took a photo before getting on the bus back. At around half 7 the choir arrived back at the school and everyone headed home to rest after a long day. It was a great day and everyone thoroughly enjoyed it. Huge thanks to the tireless work Ms Cronly, Ms Murphy, Ms Alymer, Ms Richardsona and Mr Noonan put in.

Report by Finn Morris (4th Year)

Photographs by Rihannon Murphy (4th Year)