Drimoleague feeling chirpy for Bealtaine Dawn Chorus

DRIMOLEAGUE Community Choir is gearing up for this year’s Bealtaine Festival Flagship Dawn Chorus Choir.

The Dawn Chorus is a nationwide choral event in which older people come together with a choir in their locality and sing at dawn to welcome the day and the season.

This Age and Opportunity Bealtaine Festival event works in partnership with Sing Ireland.

Drimoleague Community Choir will open this year’s festival and celebrate the Bealtaine Festival theme of Lust for Life in style.

Drimoleague Community Choir was founded in 2018 as an initiative of the Drimoleague Singing Festival.

The choir is open to all and encourages participation in singing, friendship and fun with no previous experience necessary.

They meet weekly to sing a wide repertoire of pop, folk, spirituals, classical and Irish traditional songs. The sharing of the joy of song is at the core of all they do.

The choir aims to provide a year round means of nurturing the towns singing culture and is seen by its members as an important social outlet as well as being an interesting and creative collaborative activity.

Drimoleague Community Choir has performed in a number of concerts in the village, raising money for charity singing Christmas carols, and performed as a pop-up choir during the Drimoleague Singing Festival.

They have also performed with star names, including Jack O’Rourke (2019), Jessie Lloyd (2023) and Jack L (2023). They most recently performed at Singing for our Sisters in Kilgarriffe Church, Clonakilty in April 2024.

‘We’re delighted to be hosting this year’s Flagship Dawn Chorus. The benefits of singing are well documented and we get to experience those together as a choir on a weekly basis,’ said choir director Susan
McManamon.

‘Drimoleague is the perfect stage for the Dawn Chorus given its long and strong history of singing in the community.

‘The sharing of a song is an art much appreciated in this town so I’ve no doubt that we’ll be joined by great voices on the day. All are welcome so be sure to come along.’

This is a free event and everyone is welcome. The Dawn Chorus with Drimoleague Community Choir takes place at 7.30am on Sunday May 5th at the Old Station Car Park, Drimoleague, (opposite the Drimoleague Inn).

Established in 1995, Age & Opportunity’s Bealtaine Festival takes place each May for the entire month.

The festival brings together people from all over Ireland to foster and inspire creativity among older people and to promote the skills, experiences and exposure that can lead to a rich creative life for all older people.