Prestigious history of local award-winning band

To some it has simply been ‘The Coan’, while to others it has been ‘The Red Devils’. To the piping world, Ballycoan Pipe Band represents a tradition of musical skill that has bettered the best.

The Coan’s history belongs to men and women of determination, forming it from the ashes of a post First World War Pipe Band, injecting new life into the Royal Stewart Tartan in the aftermath of the Second World War and eventually taking it into a new Millennium.

The former members of Ballycoan Pipe Band read as a who’s who of the Pipe Band world, counting Willie Woods, Frank Gibson, Bobby Rea, Kit Reynolds, Harry McAleer, Mark Armstrong and many, many more amongst the band’s esteemed players.

The birth of Ballycoan Pipe Band dates back to 1935, when Pipe Major William Evans and Pipe Sergeant Willie John Gregory of Coronation Pipe Band decided it was time to start a pipe band in the village of Ballycoan. Before long, it was launched as ‘Ballycoan Jubilee Pipe Band’, the ‘Jubilee’ being added as it was the Silver Jubilee of King George V that year, 1935.

The committee had the task of looking out for a suitable band hall. At a price of £40, an old hut on Laganbank Road was bought, dismantled and re-erected on a site given to them by John Wilgar.

Around 1937, William Evans became the first Pipe Major, once they got the band on the road. Not long after, war broke out, the band closed down and the band hall was taken over to house Air-Raid refugees from Belfast. Soon after the war ended, the band started up again.

In 1947 a new Pipe Major, Billy Wood from Dromara Pipe Band, took over. Additions like Jim Brown, winner of the first All-Ireland Solo Drumming contest in 1950, Jackie Seaton, Billy Dunlop, Bobby Rea, Ivan Scott, Alex Hull, Sandy Cummings and Ian Wood made their imprints on success and brought Ballycoan through the ‘golden years’ of the 50s.

The 50s was a remarkable musical era, changing popular listening patterns - for Ballycoan, those years set the foundation for an ascendance to the peak. At that time Ballycoan was only a Grade 3 band but under the old rules they were allowed to play in the higher grades. Ballycoan Pipe Band was the first Irish Pipe Band to take away a prize from Scotland when they competed in Grade 2 at the Cowal Games in Dunoon in 1950, taking 1st place and winning the ‘The Sir Harry Lauder Shield’.

Later that year, in the CIYMS Hall, Donegal Square East, Belfast on Saturday 28 October 1950, the mostly young pupils at the newly formed Northern Ireland Piping and Drumming School were asked if they would like to come along and help rebuild a legendary name in the pipe band world - Ballycoan.

With a new decade approaching, a new era injected new life into ‘The Coan’. Nurtured talent, spiced with commitment, brought the band back from the brink and up the rungs of the ladder for another go at success.

The band went out in the early 90s in Grade 3, placing in the top four at every competition from 1991-1993, including first place finishes at the Ulster and European Championships in 1993 and a runners-up spot at the World Championships in 1993.

With the success of the 1993 season, Ballycoan was promoted to Grade 2. Under Brian Rea’s leadership, the band climbed steadily through the grade.

In 1997, Brian made the decision to step down after 21 Years as Pipe Major, handing the reins over to his son, Alfie Rea. Alfie spent the next decade taking the band to the very top of Grade 2 and up through Grade 1. In 1999 Ballycoan won their first Grade 2 Major, the Cowal Championships. Three years later, Alfie led the band to the perfect season, winning every competition in Grade 2, all local contests and all five Majors, Scottish, British, European, Cowal and World Championships, Northern Ireland Champion of Champions and Supreme Champion of Champions of the World.

The Band was promoted to Grade 1 for the 2003 season and over the next five years worked hard to push up through the grade. Ballycoan qualified for the Grade 1 World Championship final no less than three out of five times, winning the qualifying heat on one occasion and coming second on another, achieved a number of 7th and 8th place finishes at Major Championships and attained the band’s highest placing at the Worlds in Grade 1 to date, being 10th in 2006.

In addition to the high level of achievement at the Major championships, Ballycoan also took extensive local championship titles, winning the Grade 1 Champions of Champions trophy three times.

At the close of the 2007 season, Alfie Rea made the decision, due to work commitments, to temporarily hand over his ‘baby’ to a new PM for a time. Alfie invited Glenn Cupples, a long term friend and fellow Field Marshal Montgomery player to be the new custodian of the band. Glenn played an important role in the development of the pipe corps during his two years in charge. During the 2008 and 2009 seasons under Glenn’s leadership, the band achieved two 7th place finishes at Major Championships, pre-qualified for the World Championship final for the first time and won a number of local titles, picking up the band’s fourth Northern Ireland Champion of Champions trophy.

Alfie returned to the PM position at the end of 2009 and went on to take the band to more success and a permanent position in the top 10 in the Majors during 2010. At the end of the 2010 season, pressure of family life and work commitments hit Ballycoan hard and reduced player numbers made competing unfeasible for a modern Grade 1 outfit. The band made the tough decision to take a year out and attempt to reform at the end of the 2011 season with the hope of new players.

Unfortunately, after two strong attempts by the band’s stalwarts to reform the band in Grade 1, they were unable to gather enough players together to form a competitive Grade 1 band. However, Brian Rea had once again begun the rebuilding process from ground up, forming the Ballycoan Grade 4 band with a view to the future and already teaching new young players.

The process had begun once more and a new generation can now look forward to the phenomenal successes associated with the great name of Ballycoan Pipe Band.

During the last 20 plus years, Ballycoan assumed somewhat of an unwritten responsibility for training many of Northern Ireland’s young players to a level where they have not only taken Ballycoan to the prize lists of Grade 1, but have also been able to secure places with top flight bands such as Field Marshall Montgomery, Strathclyde Police, Shotts & Dykehead Caledonia and Victoria Police, some, such as Harry McAlee,r even taking over as Pipe Majors.

This only goes to prove the old adage that if you are taught correctly from the start, there is no limit to what you can do.

This was never more true than in the Ballycoan Pipe Band Hall, where being taught correctly is sacrosanct.

To find out more about the band or about having lessons in either the pipes or the drums, contact Brian Rea on 90 649 439.