The Ballymun Youth Band's instruments have seen better days, and its uniforms are a bit shabby.
And since the Government announced that it was allocating £1.25 million for a youth services fund instead of the expected £20 million the band's hopes for £7,000 to buy new instruments and outfits have struck a bad chord.
The accordion band is one of many groups that had hoped to benefit from the Youth Services Development Fund, aimed at stemming the cycle of heroin addiction in deprived areas through offering alternatives to drugs.
Its director, Mr Jim O'Keeffe, says he is "convinced" that the band is preventing children from drifting towards drugs. "It offers a drug-free area where the kids are concerned because they are more interested in their instruments. Some of them go on to do music when they leave school. It's a great interest for them."
The Youth Services Development Fund was to be distributed in addition to £10 million announced last month for projects proposed by the 13 local drugs task forces set up as part of the Government's national drug strategy in 1996.
The Ballymun drugs task force received £645,000 from the £10 million fund. Applications for it were channelled through the National Drugs Strategy Team which then made recommendations to the Government.
But the Ballymun task force excluded from this application several other youth projects which it says the drugs strategy team had indicated would be more suitable for the youth fund.
One of these youth projects was the funding for the accordion band. Another was an application for £400,000 capital funding, as well as running costs, for a youth centre.
"A lot of local people are trying to do voluntary work in flooded and rat-infested basements," says Mr Hugh Greaves, the Ballymun task force's co-ordinator. "We were hoping a new centre would offer good positive creative activities."