Analysis: These pre-dawn parades on St Patrick's Day show how important and integral the bands and traditions are to both communities
Two communities in Ireland have a steadfast commitment to parading and marching through the year: Achill Island and Dingle. While there are various marches marking the calendar for both communities and their bands, it is the early morning parades on St Patrick’s Day that are the pinnacle of that year.
Both band traditions date back to at least the Land League years in the late 1870s, when fife and drum bands were commonplace all over the island. There are no floats, no masquerade and no jig-acting on these early morning pilgrimages. The bands parade along traditional routes that have been adhered to for generations, commemorating St Patrick and Irish identity of course, but also celebrating community, tradition and resilience.
While parading forms the basis of most Irish St Patrick’s Day celebrations today, its beginnings were in the United States (St. Augustine, Florida in 1603, Boston 1737 and New York 1762). Some say the first parade in Ireland happened in Waterford in 1903, but it is clear that the communities of Achill and Dingle were parading before that.
The Dooagh Fife and Drum band was established on Achill Island in 1882 and an invite from the local priest saw the band first march before early Mass that year to celebrate Patrick. They were followed en route to the church by locals and the tradition prevailed. In the 1940s, the band switched from playing fifes to pipes and there are now five bands who parade on the island: St Patrick’s Pipe Band Dooagh, the Pollagh Pipe Band, the Keel Pipe Band, the Memorial Pipe Band Dookinella and the Tonregee Pipe Band.
Each band marches from their particular village and all meet at the church. While they begin the parade to the church at 8am, the island is awake from much earlier when the sounds of the bass drum, known as the 'reveillé’, wakes islanders from their slumber.
This tradition came about in the early 1920s, after warnings were given to the bands not to parade, but the Druma Mór sounded at 6am to call the bands to ready themselves to parade in any case. The tradition remains unbroken and the drum still wakes all in Achill today.
From RTÉ News, Jim Fahy reports on the Druma Mór waking Achill Island on St Patrick's Day 1989
After mass, all the bands meet and play, first each band at a time and then ensemble with a group of around 80 musicians – a wonderful feat for any small community. The strains of Let Erin Remember and Wrap the Green Flag ring out as the bands continue their own individual parading routes until well in to the evening.
According to traditional musician and Dooagh drummer Diarmuid Gielty, ‘people come home from all over the world on St. Patrick’s Day and you mightn’t see them again until next Patrick’s Day. It’s bigger than Christmas and New Year for us. It’s pretty special. It’s deep down within us really and in our psyche…there’s sheer pride in it for us.’
As Reveillé is sounding in Achill, the Dingle Fife and Drum band are beginning their traditional march at 6am (5.55am to be exact), parading the streets of the town in a traditional route which has been followed in living memory. The belief is that there were rules prohibiting parading in the Land League years, but the band got away with the pre-dawn parade in order to celebrate the patron saint’s day in the town. The band, which has been led by renowned traditional musician Fergus Ó Flaithbheartaigh for many decades now, has about 40 members today and is thriving.
From Don MacMonagle, footage of the Dingle Fife & Drum band marching through the streets of Dingle at 6am on St. Patrick's Day 2024
The parade begins with the drum corps solo before the fifers join in a very Dingle-version of the tune St. Patricks’ Day. The band is followed down through the town, in darkness, by hundreds of townspeople, many of whom link arms on their traditional early morning celebration.
Talking about the early parade, Ó Flaithbheartaigh says "everyone gets a kind of high or a great feeling from music at some stage...the greatest feeling I get is coming down there Patrick’s morning because it’s a collective thing. Everyone’s there for the same reason. They’re with you. The best part of...no matter what gig I ever did. I say Patrick’s morning coming down Goat Street there about the dawn is the best. You know everyone – they’re your friends. There’s no other place I’d rather be."
From 6am, townspeople appear at upstairs windows and wave at the band, while others come out to their front doors in dressing gowns and clap along with the band, all with great big smiles on their faces. An early morning Mass (6.45am) only became a part of the route in the mid 1990s and the band complete their round of the town afterwards, now in the early morning light and to tunes like Sweet Marie, God Save Ireland and, of course, the town anthem, Old Comrades. A later regular parade happens in the town after mid-day, similar to many throughout the country, and led again by the Dingle Fife and Drum Band.
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From RTÉ News, Seán Mac an tSíthigh reports on the Dingle parade in 2015
Both bands have had similar histories and, indeed, challenges, all of which have added to their resilience and significance. In the early 20th century, the Achill band were to the fore of anti-landlordism protests and discussions and led the community at this challenging time as well as through the 1920s. In Dingle, the town bands were always to the fore of political rallies from the late 19th century and into the 1920s. More recently they were to the fore of the Save Our Shore protest movement in the early 1990s and the Dingle/Daingean Uí Chúis name debate.
It is worth noting that the bands are also present for celebrations throughout the year. While they are thriving traditions today, both communities also remember leaner years when emigration particularly played a role in lower band numbers. But they persisted and kept marching, showing determination, resilience and a commitment to those who paraded before them and kept the traditions going.
The early parades really capture the commitment of the bands and show how integral they are to their communities. The parades hail glorious Saint Patrick of course, but they are about considerably more than that – spioraid pobail, traidisiún, seasmhacht, féiniúlacht agus réabhloídeachas! Oileán Acla Abú, Daingean Uí Chúis Abú agus na Bannaí Ceoil Abú!
This article is not written as an advertisement for everyone to come to Dingle or Achill for these early parades – they are doing just fine as they are! The article is written out of respect for those in both communities that have kept the parades going on Saint Patrick’s Day and throughout the year.
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The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
