Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy is a week-long summer school in traditional music and set dance held annually at Miltown Malbay, Co. Clare.
The first and biggest of such events, it commemorates the town’s best-known uilleann piper, Willie Clancy, and has been running since just after his death in 1973. The idea was initiated by Clancy himself, and implemented within six months by teacher Muiris Ó Rócháin in collaboration with CCE’s timire ceoil Séamus Mac Mathúna and local musicians Martin Talty, Paddy Joe McMahon and Junior Crehan.
The school is focused around the teaching of instruments and set dancing in formal classes, but stresses the value of the oral/aural tradition. In its fleadh-style volume of music-making in bars it has become something of a Mecca in the music, its retinue of up to a hundred and fifty teachers, and hundreds of improving and competent musicians, dancers and singers drawing in thousands of listeners.
The school addresses the cultural and intellectual side of traditional music by the inclusion of daily workshops on singing and the tradition, afternoon lectures and evening recitals. The ‘Breandán Breathnach memorial lecture’, given by various authorities in traditional music, opens the school, a music tribute at Clancy’s grave, launch of albums and publications in traditional music follow.
Scores of impromptu sessions accompany these organised activities, nightly set dance and céilis complement a routine of morning classes given by top players on uilleann pipes, flute, tin whistle, concertina, fiddle, button accordion and set dancing. Classes in harp, banjo and harmonica have been added in recent years.
Celebrating the Tulla Céilí Band
The renowned band will be 80 years playing in 2026, a landmark event in the Irish traditional music landscape.
East Clare has always had a vibrant musical tradition and the first attempt to channel this talent into a ceilí band -type format was in 1944/45 when a group called the Ballinahinch Céilí Band was formed . This group reformed and expanded in 1946 and that year entered – and won – the Féile Luimnigh competition as the Tulla Céilí Band. The rest, as the cliche goes, is history. The Tulla won the same competition in 1947and 48 and went on the competition circuit, winning many fleadh titles at county, provincial and All-Ireland levels in the 1950s and 1960s. Their main competitor in those days was the north Clare Kilfenora Céilí Band.
The Tulla’s recording catalogue is impressive spanning the 1950s to 2016 and including 78s, L.Ps, Cassette Tapes and CDs. They recorded for radio and TV and toured extensively in the UK and USA, playing at major social and cultural functions.
The band played at the first Willie Clancy Summer School in 1973 and since then has been a major attraction on the school’s programme, playing at open air sessions as well as céilithe. But the band’s association with Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy is not confined to céilithe. Many band members have been tutors and demonstrators at the workshops over the years. P. Joe Hayes, Francie Donnellan, Paddy Canny, Seán Reid, Peadar O’ Loughlin and Martin Hayes have contributed hugely to the school’s tuition programme. Therefore the school is delighted to mark this enduring collaboration with a special tribute on Tuesday the 9th July when band members, past and present, relatives and friends, musicians and dancers, will come together for an afternoon of music, song and dance. The event will be presented by Paula Carroll, traditional music broadcaster and a presenter of Clare FM’s traditional music programme The West Wind.
The Tulla is still a major attraction on the school’s céilithe programme, bringing hundreds of dancers to the Mill Marquee on Tuesdays and Thursdays of summer school week. And they are still in friendly competition with old rivals the Kilfenora who occupy the Monday and Wednesday slots at the Marquee.
Remembering Margaret Barry
Margaret Barry may not be well known nowadays in traditional music circles but she was once a major figure on the folk/traditional music circuit, in the 1950s and 1960s and an older generation in Ireland and the UK will have memories of her performances.
She began her career as a street singer, her strongly accented unique voice and loudly strummed banjo penetrating the cacophonies of fair days, pubs football matches and race meetings. Gradually she established a solid and serious audience among folk music followers and commentators. She was recorded by such experts as the American collector Alan Lomax, singer/songwriter Ewan McColl , and Peter Kennedy of the BBC, and began to play at established entertainment centres all over Ireland.
With her musical companion, Sligo fiddler Michael Gorman, she toured the folk music clubs in the UK and the vibrant network of Irish pubs in London. Television brought them a wider audience and they played the Royal Albert Hall, maybe the high point of their UK professional careers.
In the US they performed at the Rockefeller Centre in New York and appeared at the controversial Newport Folk Festival in 1965 where they shared billing with the likes of Pete Seeger, Joan Baez and Bob Dylan.
The Willie Clancy Summer School is remembering the singer on the afternoon of Thursday 11 July when Alan Woods, Artist Liaison and Field Recording Officer with the Irish Traditional Music Archive, will give a talk on her life and music. Accompanying Alan Woods will be the award- winning singer/songwriter Lisa O’ Neill who will perform a selection of Barry’s repertoire .
Other Lectures and Overseas Contributions
Other lectures on offer during the week include an examination of the long-standing connections between pipers and piping in Clare and Dublin , extending back to the 1930s, which will be given by Gay McKeon , CEO, and Emmett Gill, Archivist, Na Píobairií Uilleann. This lecture marks the 50th anniversary of the long-standing cooperation between the Willie Clancy Summer School and Na Piobairi Uilleann (NPU) which began in 1974.
A number of overseas lecturers will bring interesting insights into various aspects of Irish traditional music in their presentations. Chelsey Zimmerman , from the USA , is a PhD student at the University of Limerick and she has extensively researched Irish traditional music and musicians in New York city in the early decades of the 20th century, She will lecture on her recent research. Professor Kate Bevan-Baker of Concordia University, Montréal, will speak on the connections between the traditional music of Ireland and Québec. The School of Irish Studies at Concordia University is a powerhouse for the study of Irish traditional music and culture and Head of the School is Ennis man Professor Gearóid Ó hAllmhúrain, a noted academic, piper and concertina player.
Collecting in Miltown in the 1960s
Scottish singers and musicians Peter Shepheard and Jimmy Hutchison, were young folk music enthusiasts during the folk music revival of the 1960s and familiar with the folk club circuit in the UK. They first visited Miltown Malbay in 1964 and recorded many local singers and musicians. The pair were directed to Miltown by the renowned broadcaster and collector, Ciaran MacMathúna, who indicated that it would be an ideal place for exploring Irish traditional music and song. In the final presentation on Saturday 13 July they will share these recordings and their memories of that journey with visitors and local people –many of them relatives of those recorded sixty years ago.
Music from Virginia and Québec
The Scuffletown Trio Marc Carraway, John Whitlow and Matty Metcalfe – multi-instrumentalists from Virginia, USA, and playing Appalachian, blues and bluegrass – will give a workshop on the connections between Irish traditional music and Appalachian music on the afternoon of Monday 8 July.
Entitled ‘Irish Roots to Appalachian Branches’ the presentation will demonstrate the styles and techniques linking both musical traditions which have evolved over centuries.
They will also perform at the Ceolchoirm Idirnáisiúnta /International Concert on Tuesday afternoon, at the Mill Marquee, sharing the bill with the Gairloch Trio from Montréal.
Gairloch is described as “ a Celtic Trio focusing on the Scottish and Irish traditional repertoire.” They perform songs and instrumental tunes from the traditions of Scotland, Ireland and Québec.
All multi-instrumentalists, their musicianship has been described as world class. The trio consists of Seán Dagher, a composer and arranger and an expert on sea shanty-singing who plays bouzouki and banjo, Kate Bevan-Baker an award-winning fiddler, violinist and singer who teaches at Concordia and McGill universities, and David Gossage who plays flute, guitar and harmonica in all styles of music and teaches Jazz at McGill University. Gairloch will deliver two afternoon workshops at the school. On Wednesday they will demonstrate Québec fiddle styles and techniques and on Thursday will provide illustrations of Sea Shanty Singing, its traditions and techniques.
Know the Score: Read Music the Trad Way
The Willie Clancy Summer School is constantly revamping its courses and adding to its curriculum.
This new course was initiated in 2023 and attracted much interest. It was designed by the inspirational music educator and musician, Dr Liz Doherty. The course is aimed at music tutors who wish to develop their tuition techniques and schoolteachers who wish to acquire the skills to confidently foster traditional music in the classroom. The course is delivered in association with I Teach Trad and, very important to note, certified by the Royal Irish Academy of Music.
For full details on this programme contact Dr Liz Doherty at [email protected]
As usual there is a full programme of instrumental tuition and workshops on traditional singing and the history of Irish traditional music, song and dance, complemented by recitals, concerts and céilithe. The school will be opened on Saturday 6th July by the distinguished piper and documentary maker Peter Browne, well known for his work with RTÉ Radio as producer and presenter. And the artistic programme of the 52nd summer school will come to an end with the grand finale concert on Saturday 13th when Cor Chúil Aodha will wrap up a varied week of lectures, recitals, concerts, film documentaries, workshops and céilithe.
The 52nd Willie Clancy Summer School takes place in Miltown Malbay, Co. Clare 6- 14 July.
For full details of the Summer School, including the programme and accommodation, see the official website.
Note: Online registration is now closed.
