Concert will celebrate Ardmore's bygone Irish College in County Waterford

A special commemorative concert featuring Cór Fear na nDéise male voice choir will take place in St. Paul’s Church, Ardmore on Friday, September 27.

Organised by the Irish Office of Waterford City and County Council, the concert will feature songs that were sung in Coláiste Deuglán, a thriving Irish College that existed in the seaside village of Ardmore one hundred years ago.

Cór Fear na nDéise will be joined by the Ardmore Community Choir and by children from the local national school, Scoil Náisiúnta Deuglán Naofa, for this special event.

One hundred years ago, in July 1924, one of the founders of Coláiste Deuglán, Mícheál Ó Foghlú published a booklet entitled ‘Cuisle Ceoil’, a collection of songs of the Déise, which he had gathered on his travels as a Conradh na Gaeilge ‘timire’, (organiser). 

The booklet was published as the songbook for those attending the Irish college, which stood next to the current Round Tower Hotel. The concert is being organised to commemorate the Irish College and the songs that were learned by avid Irish language learners in the new Free State.

“Through funding from the Creative Waterford programme, we are delighted to be able to organise this special commemorative concert in memory of Coláiste Deuglán,” said Irish Officer, Máire Seó Breathnach.

“The Irish language was in use as a community language in Ardmore until the middle of the last century and Coláiste Deuglán was an important cultural and linguistic fulcrum in the village from 1920 until the mid-1940s."

The Cuisle Ceoil concert will take place in St Paul’s Church on Tower Hill, Ardmore at 7.30pm on Friday, September. Tickets are available at Eventbrite or by e-mailing gaeilge@waterfordcouncil.ie.