Michael Harford

Band Master, Blanchardstown Brass Band

The band was formed in 1826, it's the oldest brass band in Ireland. I joined in 1945 when I was 21. I played the cornet and the horn but now I conduct. I took a few lessons in conducting and now I prefer it to playing. I do it voluntarily - I get a gratuity of £200 a year to cover expenses. I teach the beginners as well.

We marched the Blanchardstown parishioners into the Phoenix Park for the Pope's visit in 1979, but we don't march much anymore. We have all different ages in the band and it is hard for everyone to keep in step. The young ones have to stretch out and the older ones have to shorten their stride. We do the occasional funeral. We did Father Michael Cleary's funeral. He opened our new band room for us in 1980 with Michelle Rocca, who was Miss Ireland that year.

I started playing the violin when I was 11. Soon after that I joined the scouts and started playing the bugle. A young lad couldn't be going around with a violin at that time - you'd be called a sissy. In 1940 I joined the Army and there used to be nothing to do in the evenings down the Curragh, so I'd go into the band room and cod around with the lads. I was in the engineers so I couldn't be in the band. That's how I got into brass band music.

The Sousa marches give you the kick in a brass band. But we play everything - waltzes, light opera, Oklahoma, even modern stuff like Andrew Lloyd-Webber. We play to the crowd. We do more modern stuff for a young crowd. There's no sense in playing overtures if they just walk away. But young people in general aren't that interested in brass bands. You only get the older people listening.

We play every second Sunday during the summer, from Dun Laoghaire to the Green. We do garden fetes on Saturdays, and concerts in Blanchardstown all through the year. The lads don't want to be working every weekend though - most of them have full-time jobs. I used to be chief superintendent in the Ordnance Survey, but I'm retired now.

My job is really to keep the band balanced, to make sure the cornets aren't blasting out too much, or the trombones. My favourite place to play is a covered bandstand - you get a much better sound. We've done a few jobs for the President, Mrs Robinson, too. I remember her apologising to us when she came to open the tennis club in Castleknock and we were getting soaked in the rain.

We used to play in Croke Park during the summer, when Artane was a school band, not available during school holidays. Then they got rid of us for playing Puppet On A String and Boom Bang-A-Bang. We didn't realise we were on sacred ground!

Everything we earn goes into the kitty, to buy uniforms and instruments for the members. We also have to pay for our own transport, and a minibus can cost up to £60. The members pay a yearly subscription of £25. Beginners pay £1 a week for three lessons with me.

Being in the band is a family tradition. I have three sons and a niece in the band. Women started playing with us about 10 years ago. We had to change our constitution to allow them in, and we had to get planning permission to build a ladies' lavatory in the band room, where we rehearse.

In conversation wit Katie Donovan