http://www.scoilsamhraidhwillieclancy.com/
In case anyone hasn’t heard yet, the 2020 Willie Clancy Week has officially been cancelled. Not surprising, but obviously a big blow to both the Irish music community and a lot of wallets, big and small, in West Clare. Hopefully in 2021 it’ll back and better than ever.
It was to be expected. Harry confirmed it earlier today. It will be odd, after being at forty of them, to have a year without.
Apparently there’s no mask shortage over in Ireland …
They keep an option of holding a smaller scale weekend of events later in the year, if circumstances allow and then come back hopefully with a full program next year. That would be nice but without a vaccine I wonder how viable the idea will be.
I agree.
It’s hard to see how a lot of areas can resume without a vaccine.
Be tough on the local economy.
Businesses are already asking for government support. 20% of annual turnover is generated by Willie.
Remember Mary Fahey: she kept all the bills for the year, had the pub full all week and paid of all of them in one go.
Lots of worry around. Ennistymon is on the rise, lively, lots of people around and things to do, places to eat and drink coffee (before the lockdown anyway) while Miltown is down in the dumps.
It’s a worry alright.
A friend of mine, a house painter, used to get a lot of work painting and sprucing up the shop fronts and houses before the summer school. That type of work would have dried up as well.
I always thought that Ennistymon was ripe for a bit of regeneration. The Falls Hotel seems to be popular and there wan’t much going on in the town. A local box player, Robert something, opened up a coffee shop there.
Cheers
John
You have the young and trendy set moving in, Little Fox or Pot Duggan’s for food, OhLaLa and the Cheesepress for coffee and crepes and cheese respectively, art galleries, bookshops, the healthfood shop that sort of thing and that on top of the ‘traditional’ Ennistymon of farmers coming in for the shopping, horsefairs and all that. I used to see Gussie Russell come in to Supervalue on the Fridays, get a pound of sliced ham, a sliced pan, a chicken and a roll of biccies and he’d be set for the week. There’s a bit off that left, North Clare getting their messages. Mick O’Connor and Tony Smith are both around regularly so they have tunes going. Ennistymon has different layers or strands or whatever you want to call it. And an Aldi. It’s very different from Miltown.
A friend of mine, a house painter, used to get a lot of work painting and sprucing up the shop fronts and houses before the summer school. That type of work would have dried up as well.
I wonder, there’s an awful lot of painting going on, between the lockdown and the weather. Perhaps more people doing their own houses though. Done it myself.
Hi Peter
For the past few visits to Willie Clancy week I had incorporated the Monday session in Ennistymon into my schedule. Tom O’Driscoll and Gabriel Clancy et al would be there. And then the Wednesday trip to the pub beside Bridget’s Well.
Life is always moving on and changing.
Keep well
There are plans afoot for a series of online Willie events during the week the SSWC would normally be held. Keep an eye out, if you’re into the social media thing.
With the summerschool cancelled for 2020 both the WCSS committee and ITMA are making a big effort to create a ‘virtual’ event.
ITMA will stream archive material. highlights, from past Willies, starting on June 24.
Events from last year will be streamed. A virtual Willie .
More information on the ITMA page and more specific info is here.
On top of that the school is offering free online classes/tuition but places are limited: registration here. See also the school’s website : WCSS
More in the works, keep an eye out. If you’re into that sort of thing, ofcourse.
Yesterday it was the harps, tonight, 8 O’Clock Irish tine, highlights of fiddle recitals past will be streamed : here. Whistle and flute on friday and so on..
Thanks peter.
In the first set who was the fiddler to John Kelly’ right. The man with the cap
Hi John,
Looks like Marty O’Keeffe. He kept coming and played the fiddle recital on his 100th birthday. Still came the year after but didn’t play. He’s gone now.
Here he is, in the back of Murphy’s, St Bridget’s Well, 1994:
Microphones in front of players’ faces, the bane of visual registration.
It’s flutes and whistles next.
[updated link to whistle/flute highlights]
Thanks for the link Mr G. Unless I’m very much mistaken, Brid O’Donoghue there on the title page , playing what looks to be a nickel “Generation” whistle, something you don’t see all that often these days. Would anyone like to hear her performance at the first Willie Clancy week flute and whistle recital I attended - in 1980, 40 years ago ? !!! In the absence of this year’s Willie Week, I’m thinking of posting some of the recordings I have on Youtube, especially in memory of some of the players who are no longer around.
I’ll post any whistle track links here.
Thanks Peter for that.
Thanks Kenny. Be very interested to hear Brid.
I liked the video of Maire O’Keefe and her friends playing the Padraig O’Keefe tunes.
Thanks for the link Mr G. Unless I’m very much mistaken, Brid O’Donoghue there on the title page , playing what looks to be a nickel “Generation” whistle, something you don’t see all that often these days.
Yes, It’s Bríd, either the Generation or an Oak that she had at the time. I got her a D and later C Sindt (as well as a sprinkling of Ds for the rest of the family) after she borrowed my own to use in the recording of her first CD. She’s been playing those as well as an Eb Killarney.
Someone gave me a tape of the concerts at the very first WCSS in 1975, I think she is on that as well. Prime example of someone making an appearance in their teens and moving through into senior teacher-hood and then their children stepping into the junior positions for continuity. And the Kellys and the McCarthys are into the third generation teaching the school.
This sort of thing:
Paraic Keane listening to his grandfather, Tommy McCarthy
there have been a few Generations on in recent years, Róisiín Nic Donncha plays one these days, Mary Bergin used the Bflat, Mick Crehan plays them etc.
I liked the video of Maire O’Keefe and her friends playing the Padraig O’Keefe tunes.
That was lovely. I was watching how Maire and Aoife (sisters afterall) were very closely using the same bowing for a bit and then it changed in mid tune and they went in completely different directions.
The link to the whistle highlights changed, I updated my post from earlier on.
1980 was my first one, its a different world now Kenny, and at times I feel old for it too: I met Micho for the first time and we all thought he was ancient then but I am older now than he was then.
Brid O’Donohue - “The Queen Of The Rushes” - 1980
https://youtu.be/LG1Zpi8yrok
From tomorrow, July 4, the Virtual Willie will begin, programme here
Lectures, recitals and concerts. from last year.
In West Clare, meanwhile, it’s summer: 15C and relentless drizzle.
The final event has gone online : the Big Saturday Concert. Always a bit of a long haul, tiredness taking its toll at that stage of the week, but every man and his dog going on and it isn’t really over until Cór Cuil Aodha has sung Mo Ghile Mear.
ITMA had a technical hitch filming the 2019 concert so 2017 is up instead.
Muiris Ó Rócháin Saturday Memorial Concert 2017
We are delighted to bring a special Saturday Night Concert recorded in 2017 featuring: Muireann Ní Dhuigneáin ; Séamus Ó Rócháin & Bríd O’Donohue ; Seán O’Brien, Eibhlís O’Brien, Deirdre O’Brien, Sinéad O’Brien & Liam O’Brien ; Martin Donohoe ; Jimmy Ó Ceannabháin ; Paul Dooley ; Mick Kinsella & Rick Epping ; Zoë Conway & John Mc Intyre ; Tim Dennehy ; Bobby Gardiner, Ciara Ní Rócháin, Aidan Vaughan, Paddy Neylon & Deirdre Comer ; John Kelly, Johnny Kelly, James Kelly, Cathy Kelly, Ian Roome, Tom McGorman, Catherine McEvoy, Daithí Connaughton & Siobhán Ní Chonaráin ; Tommy Guihen & Patsy Hanly ; Francie McPeake & Eugene McPeake ; Allan MacDonald ; Mick Mulcahy, Louise Mulcahy & Michelle Mulcahy ; Noel Hill & Seán Hill ; Rosie Stewart ; Mick O’Connor, Liam O’Connor, Dónal O’Connor, Aoife O’Connor, Darach O’Connor & Aoileann O’Connor ; Johnny Mháirtín Learaí Mac Donnchadha ; Jimmy O’Brien Moran, Bernadette McCarthy & Marion McCarthy ; Mary McNamara & Sorcha Costello ; Sandra Robertson, Caroline Reagh & Karen Steven ; James Keane, ; Kathy Kelly & Mairéad Casey ; Anna Friel, Sheila Friel & Clare Friel ; Peadar Ó Riada & Cór Chúil Aodha. Having encountered a slight technical issue with the 2019 recording, we decided to showcase this concert instead. Hope you enjoy it!
Clare has not seen any Covid-19 cases for a month so maybe, perhaps, Willie will be back in real time next year.