Musical instruments sought for a good cause

Still feeling guilty about giving up that musical instrument gathering dust in your home? Get rid of it for a good cause.

That's the message the IRMA Trust was sending out yesterday as it launched its instrument bank, aimed at making available unused instruments to music groups in disadvantaged communities.

The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, was on hand to launch the event, unfortunately, however, without anything to donate. "We were too busy playing football" to take up music, he said of himself and his brothers.

Instead, musicians such as Leslie Dowdall, Liam Og O Flynn and The Four of Us lead singer, Brendan Murphy, became the first people to pledge instruments to the bank, which is the flagship project of the trust, launched in 1997 with £500,000 in funding from the record industry. An additional £300,000 has since been donated to fund other projects including master classes and scholarships for young musicians.

"This will be a huge help to us. Our biggest problem has always been financial - getting money for instruments," said Ms Marie Carey (22), co-ordinator of the Ronanstown Music Programme in Dublin, one of the groups to benefit from the bank.

With the support of FAS and the Catholic Youth Council, the group provides full-time courses in music, production and drama to young people in the Neilstown area.

Four other groups are to receive instruments under the first phase of the scheme.

They are the Togher Music Project in Cork, the Vogler group in Sligo, Marketown Music Collective in north inner-city Dublin and the Golden Eagle Drum Bugler Corps, a marching band based in Jobstown, Dublin.

Anyone wishing to donate an instrument should call freephone 1 800 923 017. It will be collected free of charge by Irish Express Cargo couriers, one of the project's sponsors.