All schools across Belfast should have a traditional element to their music programmes, according to the organisers of a competition aimed at encouraging the move.
The Glengormley School of Traditional Music will next month hold a competition with the aim “to encourage all schools in Belfast to have Irish traditional music as part of their music provision”.
A deadline for registration for the competition, to be held on Saturday November 18 at the Edmund Rice College on the Hightown Road in Glengormley, has been extended to November 5.
“There has been an incredible renaissance of traditional music in Belfast over the past two decades and the GTMS has been doing work promoting the music since it was founded in 2002,” said Ray Morgan, chair of the Glengormley school.
Thousands of young people have come through the classes hosted by the college. At least five post primary schools so far have registered for the competition.
“There is never a god time to put on a competition but we have funding for about two years and could not stage due to the Covid pandemic,” Mr Morgan said, adding many of the groups only returned to playing together in September.
He described the prizes worth a total of £2,000, funded by the Moviehouse Cinema Group and Matchetts Music, as “fantastic”.
The format of the competition is two tier as the teaching of music and the numbers learning traditional is different from school to school, the organisers said.
