Keady Town has a long tradition of producing musicians, dancers, storytellers, event organisers and others who embrace and promote their loves and believes, whether it be Irish Traditions such as music, song, dance, marching bands, etc. In each section below there are a small number of videos from over the years of Keady People just doing this.

Armagh Fleadh Cheoil in Keady

Comhaltas An Chéide – Keady CCÉ: Website and Facebook.

• Armagh Fleadh Ceoil - Keady 1989. Armagh County Fleadh Ceoil as filmed by John McQuaid (Keady) between 19th & 21st May 1989. Featuring local musicians, street sessions and marching bands.

• Sessions around Keady at the 1989 Fleadh.

• Keady Monument Fleadh Cheoil Ard Mhacha 2001 Keady. Armagh, Ireland.

• Market Square and Cassies ARMAGH FLEADH CHEOIL, KEADY 2011. TC2011.

• Out on the stage at the Fleadh Cheoil Ard Macha. Keady. Ireland June 2012 and around some of the manny pub  sessions .with The Smiths,, Zoe Conway and family, The Mallons , The McCuskers ,Micheal Cairdin Searson, Eddie Whelanand, Patricia Vallely, in the sun and the rain. Armagh county Fleadh Keady June 2012 ..Pt2.

• Armagh County Fleadh, Keady June 2012 ..Pt2. Out on the stage at the Fleadh Cheoil Ard Macha. Keady. Ireland June 2012 and around some of the many pub  sessions. with The Smiths, Zoe Conway and family, The Mallons, The McCuskers, Micheal Cairdin Searson, Eddie Whelan and Patricia Vallely, in the sun and the rain.

• KEADY Armagh county fleadh MAY 26-28 2017, advert with clips from the past.

Marching Bands & Community Bands

• St Mochua’ Derrynoose Flute Band Marching in Kinelowen Street & GAA Grounds, Keady 1993.

• St. Oliver Plunkett Dance Band Keady Style, Market Square 13 Nov 2011.

• St. Oliver Plunkett Accordion Band Keady, Kinelowen Street & The Square 11 Nov 2011.

• St. Patricks Community Band playing in The Square for the Giro d'Italia passing through, Sunday 11 May 14.

• St. Patricks Community Band outside Keady Chapel - Easter Sunday 2015.

• St. Patricks Community Band, inside Keady Chapel - 17 March 2015.

• Drumderg Young Loyalists Flute Band @ Keady Orange District Service 09/07/2023.

• Madden Accordion Band @ 12th July Evening Parade In Keady 2021.

• Drumderg Loyalists Keady Since 1923 Centennial Anniversary 2023. Premiered on 1 Jan 2023.

Dance

• Keady in the 1930s, Part 2.

• Barrel Dance, Keady Square, County Armagh Fleadh, May 2017.

• The Wee Dancing Man - Tony Crozier, 21 July 2020.

Events

• Victoria Street and The Square Cardinal O' Fiaich on his way home from Rome in Keady 1978.

• Short clip of Andrew Nesbitt from the time they ran the fund raiser in Keady back in 1999! at Facebook .

• Record Breaking Rock the Boat in Keady, Kinelowen Street 23 June 2013.

• 29 Jul 2018 Before the event Macarena Keady. Maca Breda.

• Lower Kinelowen Street, The 2014 skip tour charity Orchard lorry trip. Saturday May 24. Keady South  Armagh Ireland.

• Skip Car Orchard Truck Run 2015, exiting Keady via Newtownhamilton Road.

• Skip Car Orchard Truck Run 2016. Many places.

• Tangs Hauling - Paul Kelly & The Skip Car Crew. 1 May 2017.

• There is also a Skip Car Tractor Run the following day. See 2017 Skip Car Tour Tractor Run at Caramoyle Crossroads, Keady Co. Armagh

• Armagh i news article “Paul Kelly’s ‘Tangs Hauling’ shoots to No 1 in Country charts”.

• Chapel Street Corpus Christi 2012 Keady. Armagh. Ireland.

• The Giro d'Italia Keady Sunday 11 May 14.

St Patrick's Day Festival

• St Patrick's Day Keady. Kinelowen Street 17th March 2013.

• Keady St Patricks Day 2015 Co Armagh Ireland. Stage concert from lorry trailer.

• St Patrick’s Day Keady 2018 Bridge Street, The Square & Market Square.

• GAA Ground, Kinelowen Street & The Square St Patrick's Day Keady South Armagh Ireland 2018.

• Keady, St Patrick's Day Parade and Trad session 2019. Armagh Road, Market Square, The Square & Cassies Pub Session.

• St Patrick's Day Keady, Co Armagh, Ireland 17 Mar 2014, includes St Patrick's Day Parade, The Concert, Jessie Jane McParland Martial arts expert.

Keady Sessions

• A song of dark times in Belfast when death could come from a slow cruising car  during the recent  Irish war/troubles. Sang here by the man that wrote it , Sean Mone, at the Keady session (2010). Sean Mone / Rosilita & Jack Campbell . T.C..

• Photos from 1981 until 2004 of   Keady musicians & friends. taken around the county and at the old C.C.E.session before it broke up in 2004, With the late great fiddle player, Justin McElvanna, Music track is, The Dark Island. Played by Seamus McElvanna, Justins son. An air much loved by Justin. some included are Robert McGleenan, Sean Mone, Jim Toner, Tony Crozier, Pat McNally, Seamus Robinson, Anthony McSorley, Thomas Smith, Joe Treanor, Susanne Murphy, Tomas Polan, Seamus Tansey, Darragh Valley, Jimmy Burns, Frankie Keating, Cathy Crozier, Vincie McElvanna. Keady, Armagh, Irish music Session archive .....t.c.09.

• Catherine Grimley, Paddy McCusker, The Keady Session 2011.

• Sean tells of the "Building" and closing of Keady’s flat pack penny pinching  swimming pool in the seventies,  that was built by Armagh District council ...Video by  T.C. Keady Swimming Pool, Sean Mone. Armagh Fleadh 2012...T.C.

• During the year 2020 we got very small windows when we were allowed to mix enough and long enough to have a Session. Heres the result of those few magic meetings ,soon to happen again without lockdown restrictions we hope HUP. Keady Sessions 2020 tunes.

• Keady Comhaltas CCE, The Cooper Bar, 23 April 2022 

• Arthur's Bar Traditional Irish Music Session. Keady South Armagh. Ireland. Sept 2022.

Local Songs

• Catherine Grimley - Banks of the Callan, 30 Oct 2009.

• Sean Mone.- November Keady Fair. T.C., 27 Nov 2009.

• Tommy Makem - A Bright Eyed Girl from Keady.

• Keady Swimming Pool, Sean Mone. Armagh Fleadh 2012...T.C

• Darkley Weaver, Tommy Makem, The Song Tradition, ℗ 1998 Tommy Makem/Red Biddy Records, Released on: 1998-01-01.

• "The famous song “No Man’s Land” by Eric Bogle is better known by other names such as “The Green Fields of France” or just “Willie McBride” and is about the singer resting by the grave of a young soldier killed in the First World War and reflecting on his death and the horrors of war. According to Local historian, Trevor Geary, William McBride was from Keady - 

• The Hills Of Granemore. The old song of Hunting the Hare on the Granemore Hills outside Keady, County Armagh Ireland sang by Tony Crozier, Jim on  Guitar, in Keady 3 Feb 2011 .

• Darkley Row from video entitled “Scenes and Music from Armagh, Co Armagh”, 2013.

• My Own Sweet Callan River from video entitled “Scenes and Music from Armagh, Co Armagh”, 2013.

• Hills Around Granemore, ℗ 2021 Liam Lappin. Released on: 2021-02-12.

• Chair at the Top of the Breague, ℗ 2021 Liam Lappin. Released on: 2021-02-12

A Song and a Story:

According to the 1901 Census of Ireland, William McBride was born, just outside Keady, in a cottage on the Newtownhamilton Road in 1895 Soon afterwards his family moved to Roan Cottage, Lislea. He and died at Somme, France 22 April 1916.

An article at BBC (see LINK) says Roan Cottage was the home of Private William McBride. It states:

"The famous song “No Man’s Land” by Eric Bogle is better known by other names such as “The Green Fields of France” or just “Willie McBride” and is about the singer resting by the grave of a young soldier killed in the First World War and reflecting on his death and the horrors of war.

County Armagh historian Trevor Geary believes he has found the identity of the eponymous Willie McBride. Gordon Adair tells the story."

For more information about William McBride see Lives of the First World War (and at LINK). You can listen to the original, sung by Eric Bogle, at YouTube. Also, here's a link to the better known version by The Fureys and Davy Arthur - note how different they are.

Makem’s

• A song by Keady woman Annie Jane Kelly 'THE MAY MORNING DEW'. Recorded July 1952, at Sarah Makem’s Home, Victoria Street (Straid Rath Chairbre) by Sean O’Boyle, Armagh (Annie Jane, Nee Green).

• Clip from a television programme made in 1977 about Sarah Makem  (1900-83), Irish traditional singer from Keady, County Armagh. Sarah Makem, Irish traditional singer 1900-83.

• Makem Song Festival at Tossies Cottage, Derrynoose, Co. Armagh 27 Oct 2010.

• 26 Nov 2019 From UTV. Tommy Makem 1997.

• Farewell to Carlingford, Makem, Morrison & McGleenan perform Farewell to Carlingford at Tossies Cottage, Derrynoose, Co. Armagh. 7th June 2014.

• Parts of the Concert. Traditional Irish Music at Tommy Makem Centre in Keady, County Armagh, 16 Feb 2018

• Tommy Makem in Armagh/Keady History. 26 Sept 2018. One of his final  visits to Armagh and Keady, Tommy talks  to fellow musician Dara Vallely re the history of the McMahons, Mochua, hunting the Wren and harvest customs.

• Video: "Makem Song Festival".

Old

• Fair Day in The Square, Keady in the 30s No 1.

• Keady In the 30s No2.

• Keady in the 30s No 3.

• Smuggling Men at Keady Mart No 3 1965.

Showbands

• Wee clip of The Zodiacs featuring the late Joe McGuinness R.I.P. Tommy McGuinness R.I.P. Reuben O’Neill R.I.P. & Brian McGuinness, 1988.

• Zodiacs Showband Keady Armagh . Irish Showband Scene. Reuben sings Buenos Aires, 8 Oct 2009.

• PART 5......Final part of the Majestic Showband reunion 1998 In St Patrick’s Hall Keady. (🎺in memory of Leo Nugent), uploaded 17 April 20 but s much earlier. Also, see PART 3.

• It really surprises that with the amount of bands the Keady area has produced over the years, there is very little to back up this with videos on the Internet. Maybe, you have some footage sitting at home which just needs to be uploaded.

Stories

• The Bard of Armagh, Liam McNally, at the Keady session.

• The Gender Neutral World seen through the eyes of Keady’s greatest bard, Liiam McNally, November 2017...

• The Story of The Callan River, Part 1, Beginnngs, 23 Dec 2020. Tullynawood and Darklet Forest.

• Dan McKenna, June 2019. Happy 90th Birthday to this man, a Darkley and Keady Legend! Amazing man and looks nowhere near his age!

Others

• Photos of Keady, Co Armagh during "Lockdown 2020" due to COVID 19.

• Ireland President Michael D Higgins visits Keady, County Armagh, Northern Ireland on Wednesday 16 September 2015 to officially open the new Tommy Makem Arts Centre.

• Keady Old Mill Wheel, restored and functioning in 2009.

• Keady/Annvale Glen. Videos: 1. Afternoon Walk in Keady Glen in Autumn 2021. 2. A Morning Summer Walk in Keady Glen 2021.

The first video below shows a class of 100 students at St Patrick's High School in 2013. For one school, that is a great number. The second is Keady Community Band St. Patrick's Day 2013. The young doing it on stage on their own.