THE first seisiún of the New Year will be held in the Roadside Tavern, Stewartstown on Friday, January 5 from 9pm onwards. A call goes out to all musicians, singers and storytellers to come along and join in the night's craic and of course the setting would not be complete without listeners who will also be made very welcome.

The branch policy of rotating the monthly seisiuns throughout the local area continues to be successful and organisers thank the various local communities for their support throughout the past year and are confident of a similar response in Stewartstown. Next month will be the turn of the Fianna Club in Coalisland on Friday, February 2 with an update in local press nearer the time.

January is the time when people look at the year ahead and dairies and calendars are eagerly marked with forthcoming events. One thing to look forward to and note now is the week of July 22 to July 29 when the Ulster Fleadh comes back to Coalisland for a second year in succession. Last year several local earls returned home to spend their holidays here at the same time and this is a chance to arrange this now.

The organising committee is already well in the midst of preparation and a great programme of events is currently being prepared with a street pageant, quiz, multi-cultural concert, a local historical tour and a drama already on the bill as well as the ceilithe, singing seisiuns and street and pub seisiuns and of course the competitions. This list is not yet complete as the fleadh committee is aiming to include new activities. The countdown to Fleadh Uladh 2007 is now on!