It’s Sunday morning and I’m in a basement car park beside Croke Park in Dublin to meet Pat O’Connor. He’s not selling me a ticket for the All-Ireland Final, he’s here to take me to a rehearsal session of the Communications Workers’ Union Band.
We go upstairs where the musicians are tuning up. Some of them are related. Pat plays trumpet alongside his wife Anita and his brother Eoin in the brass section. Bassoon player Jim McEvoy and his wife Maureen on French horn sit nearby. At 94, Jimmy O’Keeffe, up front on saxophone, is the band’s most senior member. His son Eoin, on flute, sits a few feet away.
Formerly known as the Post Office Workers’ Union Band, this is now the only trade union band remaining on the island of Ireland. Its foundations are hard to verify, but it was in existence prior to 1916, and all its instruments were destroyed in the GPO during the Easter Rising.
A brass and reed concert band, its members are busy competing and performing at events all over the country, and on occasion abroad. Nowadays not all its musicians are members of this trade union. Some play in a number of bands.
During a break from marching practice in the car park I ask one man about getting to various venues around Ireland to perform. He says the travelling is no problem – remembering to turn up in the right uniform is the tricky bit.
