MaSamba has always had an open-door policy of encouraging those with little or no previous drumming experience to attend our weekly community workshops, as well as maintaining a semi-professional performance group which is available to play a wide range of events.

We also deliver workshops in Afro-Brasilian percussion and dance and can design programmes to suit all situations.

It all began when members of an adult samba group, maSamba, were practicing on City Quay. Without prior arrangement, young children banging plastic buckets and basins joined the group! Group members decided to investigate the possibilities of setting up a youth samba band in the area, and maSamba do Mananha was born!v

Initially, the group was open to children from the City Quay/Pearse Street area and the group’s first performance was as part of the St. Patrick’s Festival night parade in March 1999.

maSamba do Mananha is now open to young people from throughout Dublin. We provide weekly samba percussion workshops in Westland Row CBS and aim to perform at least six times in any given year.

The group numbers between 40 and 50 people of all ages, who play samba rhythms and Irish traditional music, and have been going now for over a year, with instruction from John Coll and, more recently, Simeon Smith of maSamba.

Our first performance will be in the St Patrick’s Parade where we will be supporting the Fertha View Days Centre and will be playing a funk/reggae tune and a samba/dancehall tune.

Originating with percussion led, Afro Brasilian influenced songs, ONÇA conveys intensity of performance with humour and vitality. Their unique style springs from the rich well of Afro Brasilian ritual music. Musical forms such as Maracatu, Xoté, Tambor de Crioule, Cucuria, Bloco Afro, Manguebeat and Afoxé are at the heart of ONÇA’s sound. Percussion fused with other instrumentation gives a danceable contemporary feel while remaining true to the swing and dark passion of Brasil.

As a pedigree the band have experienced a wide selection of tutelage, and are always looking for more. We seek always seek to connect to other bands, fruits of these partnerships already developed in our Boomdang drumming with ties in European carnival performance. Studying samba has led to some great experiences and hopefully Maracatu styles will develop similar performance opportunities.

We practice all year round in Tralee on Monday evenings and anyone willing to participate is welcome to come along and check us out. We've played at 'The Rose of Tralee Festival', 'Killarney Summerfest',' Listowel Writers Week', 'Féile Na Bealtaine, An Daingin' and regularly at other local community events throughout the county.

We are a non-profit community band. Apart from occasional expenses any money earned goes towards equipment, uniforms etc. There are approximately 12 people in the band, divided pretty much equally between men and women and ages ranging from 18 to........older. We try to enjoy ourselves and share that enjoyment with everyone else...we're on a long learning curve and positive input and new blood is always more than welcome.