The Aughakillymaude Community Mummers from County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland visited Cheshire from Friday 28th June to Tuesday 2nd July 2002, for a weekend of Traditional Dance & Drama. This was only the second time Aughakillymaude have been to England and the first to the North West in what proved to be a full and varied weekend involving a mix of public performances and workshops for local schoolchildren.
Many of the Mummers wear the straw costumes and high conical straw hats that are such a feature of mumming from Fermanagh. Their performance involves a Hero Combat Play interspersed with singing, dancing and music.
They were guests of Adlington Morris Men, the event was funded by a grant from the 'National Lottery Awards for All' programme.
Duncan Broomhead
[See also Duncan's account of the Aughakillymaude Community Mummers at the Enniskillen Mumming Festival in 2000, in Traditional Drama Forum No.2.]