We are delighted to announce our 2024 Finalist schools!
On Friday, 1st March, RTÉ lyric fm announced the twelve school music groups (six primary and six post-primary) selected as Finalists in the 2024 Waltons RTÉ lyric fm Music for Schools Competition. There was a huge response from schools around the country when this year's Competition was announced last December, and the closing date last Friday saw a deluge of primary, post-primary and special school entries flooding in from 19 different counties. The Competition’s first-round adjudicators were enormously impressed by the high standard of entries this year and the imagination, musicality and effort evident in each of them, and they had their work cut out for them in selecting just twelve groups (six primary and six post-primary) to perform in the 2024 Music for Schools Competition Finalists Concert, which will take
place in the National Concert Hall on Monday, 8 April at 1pm.
At the Finalists Concert, our distinguished adjudicators Zoë Conway and Liam Ó Maonlaí, as well as one of the Competition co-directors, will select six of these groups – three primary and three post-primary – to win First, Second and Third prizes, as well as €2,000, €1,000 and €500 vouchers for musical instruments and equipment from Waltons Music Ireland for their schools.
The Finalists were selected based on several criteria, including musicality, originality, inclusiveness and how effectively and creatively they addressed this year’s Competition theme, 'Music Moves’.
Primary Finalists
Carrig National School, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary
Corpus Christi Primary School, Moyross, Co. Limerick
Gaelscoil Aonach Urmhumhan, Aonach Urmhumhan, Co. Thiobraid Árann
Knockanean National School, Ennis, Co. Clare
LurgyBrack National School, Letterkenny, Co. Donegal
St. Teresa's National School, Killoe, Co. Longford
Post-Primary Finalists
East Glendalough School, Wicklow, Co. Wicklow
Loreto Secondary School, Balbriggan, Co. Dublin
Lucan Community College, Lucan, Co. Dublin
Scoil Mhuire, Trim, Co. Meath
St. Mary's Secondary School, Edenderry, Co. Offaly
St. Mary’s Secondary School, Macroom, Co. Cork
The first-round adjudicators also selected a standout entry to perform in the Finalist Concert – a group from Scoil Bernadette Special School, Montenotte, Co. Cork.
In addition to the Finalists, the adjudicators also singled out groups that were not selected but of particular merit as either Commended or Highly Commended. A list of these schools will be available on the Competition web page soon, and they will receive commendation certificates for all participants in acknowledgement of their achievements.
Profiles and videos of the Finalist schools, as well as lists of Highly Commended and Commended entries, will be available soon on the Competition YouTube channel, website and Facebook pages.
Head to newschool.ie/2024finalists for more information
About the Competition
The Waltons RTÉ lyric fm Music for Schools Competition is a non-profit competition and celebration of music in Irish schools, is open to all primary and post-primary schools in the Republic of Ireland, and hundreds of schools from all 26 counties have participated since the first Competition in 2012. The Music for Schools Competition offers schools the opportunity to think and work creatively with any combination of students, developing a creative and original musical project that has learning potential at every stage of the process.
Each year, music groups formed by schools work together to produce a piece or song in response to the year’s Competition theme. Groups can be made up of any combination of instrumentalists and singers that schools choose, and all music genres are welcome. Twelve Finalist groups (six primary and six post-primary) are then selected by an initial judging panel to perform before their peers and a distinguished panel of adjudicators in a Finalists Concert at the National Concert Hall. And at the end of the concert, the adjudicators announce that six groups (three primary and three post-primary) will win awards totalling €7,000 worth of vouchers for musical instruments and equipment from Waltons Music to expand and enhance their schools’ music programmes. The entire concert is streamed live by RTÉ lyric fm and can be
watched from anywhere in Ireland or around the world.