James Connolly Flute Band Carnlough

The James Connolly Flute Band was formed in 2002 in Carnlough in the Glens of Antrim.  Its membership is taken mainly from the close knit community of Carnlough, though members come from as far away as Larne.  The band relied on members of the same community to teach the band to play the flute and drums and will always be grateful for the support those same people have shown throughout the bands life.  One of the bands strong points is that we have never had a proper music teacher for the band as other bands have, we have had to teach ourselves and as mentioned before received help from the community.  The bands first parade was on Saint Patricks day 2002 in Ballycastle.  The band arrived in Ballycastle on that Sunday morning feeling enthusiastic and ready for the day.  Although still playing on the the low keys we weren't going to let that ruin the day we had been waiting for for months.  There was in the region of twenty bands there on that day and as that was our first parade we knew very little of what was expected of us, but as we learned very quickly our friends in the other bands and supporters helped us in every way possible and pointed us in the right direction.  As we ranked up to begin the parade, the members were nervous which was to be expected as it was our first parade but when the first beats from the drum rang out we were on our way on the first of many parades which the JCRFB would attend in the future.  The band as a whole played with pride that day and has done so ever since, we knew we had done something right when we finished the parade to an enormous round of applause from the waiting crowd.  Since that first parade we have attended parades in Belfast, Newry, Warrenpoint, Waterfoot, Cushendall, Kilrea, Rasharkin, Dunloy and many other locations.

The band would like to take this opportunity to thank other bands, republican and independent for the support they have shown us in the past to get up and running and the undeniable support through our life so far.  We would also like to thank all those people who have supported us from the Carnlough community and beyond and especially one man, who without his relentless work and committment this band would never have happened.  That man and the band know who he is.

OUR MOTTO

"LOUD AND PROUD"