{"id":546072,"date":"2026-07-12T15:52:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T15:52:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/546072\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T15:52:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T15:52:06","slug":"willie-clancy-week-every-shack-shed-and-sibin-has-a-concertina-player-in-it-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/546072\/","title":{"rendered":"Willie Clancy week: \u2018Every shack, shed and s\u00edb\u00edn has a concertina player in it\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whatever road you take to Miltown Malbay, there\u2019ll be music wafting through the air to greet you. <\/p>\n

Come in from Mullagh or Annagh and you\u2019ll hear banjos. It\u2019s harps along the main road from Ennis. At the secondary school in Spanish Point, it\u2019s fiddles. Then it\u2019s the stomp of set and sean-n\u00f3s dancers at the Armada and Bellbridge Hotels. <\/p>\n

In the town, at the bottom of the main street, you\u2019ll hear tin whistles, and at the top, it\u2019s flutes. The concertinas, well, they\u2019re everywhere. <\/p>\n

If there\u2019s a spare room to be had in the area at this point in July, it won\u2019t be long until they\u2019ve found musicians to fill it.<\/p>\n

Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy<\/a>, or the Willie Clancy Summer School<\/a>, welcomed more than 1,500 students to the west Co Clare<\/a> town this past week. <\/p>\n

Named in honour of the famous uilleann piper, the summer school has been running since 1973. Musicians, dancers and singers from across Ireland and beyond come to Miltown Malbay each year to be taught by some of the top teachers that Irish traditional music and dance have to offer.<\/p>\n

Unlike the fleadhs, there\u2019s no competitive aspect to the week, and 53 years on, the summer school is bigger than ever.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Monday morning is always hectic,\u201d says Deirdre Comber, a member of the organising committee, \u201cwhen we have over 1,500 students descending and they all have to meet their tutors and be sent to their various classes. But the great thing is everyone\u2019s always delighted to be here and they\u2019re always in great humour.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sean-nósSean-n\u00f3s students practise their steps under the guidance of tutor Mick Mulkerrin. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018Go to any reasonably sized town in Japan and you\u2019ll find an Irish pub\u2019: The Japanese fans of Irish cultureOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Such is the popularity of the classes \u2013 covering various abilities across the range of instruments; set and sean-n\u00f3s dancing; and singing \u2013 finding space to fit everyone is their only limitation. <\/p>\n

At the makeshift \u2018concertina village\u2019 out by the football pitch, \u201cevery shack, shed and s\u00edb\u00edn has a concertina player in it,\u201d Comber adds.<\/p>\n

The community comes out in force to help, offering their time and all types of spaces. The choir gallery in Miltown church, the sacristy in Mullagh, classrooms in local schools, sittingrooms in private houses and even two funeral parlours have been commandeered.<\/p>\n

While classes take place in the morning, the town has a few hours to catch its breath. For those not attending the summer school, it\u2019s a chance to sample some of the other delights of the area. Spanish Point beach, a two-minute spin out of Miltown, is in its summer glory, packed with surfers, swimmers, waders and sunbathers. It\u2019s also the temporary home of some of those who decided to lean into the festival feel of the week, pitching up their tents with the Atlantic at their (zip-up) door.<\/p>\n

\"AA traditional music session in O\u2019Loughlin\u2019s, Miltown Malbay. <\/p>\n

A trio of dry-robe-clad sea swimmers are long-time returnees. One of the women, Columba, first came to Willie Week when her children were young, sending them off to classes. Now, they\u2019re all grown up and she instead comes back with her sister, Br\u00eddeen, and they link up with their friend, Gr\u00e1inne.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all about getting the (house) rental; snagging it and coming back,\u201d says Gr\u00e1inne, with Columba adding that she\u2019s been staying at the same house nearby for 14 years.<\/p>\n

For them, the enjoyment of the week is in the lectures, recitals, concerts and c\u00e9ilithe, and being able to \u201cdip in and out\u201d of the action.<\/p>\n

By the early evening, it\u2019s standing room only in all the pubs, the musicians finding keen audiences wherever they decide to set up stall. The younger crowds flock to Cleary\u2019s, Michael A\u2019s and the Forge. Friel\u2019s will often have a session in each section of the long, narrow bar, ditto for Hillary\u2019s. And that\u2019s only a fraction of the offering.<\/p>\n

Collecting the Liam MacCarthy Cup in 1995, Anthony Daly stood on the steps of the Hogan Stand and said: \u201cIn Clare, we love our traditional music.\u201d <\/p>\n

If you come to Miltown Malbay in early July, you\u2019ll see just how right he was.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018At one point there\u2019s 3,000 people on the streets in protest against this jazz music\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Whatever road you take to Miltown Malbay, there\u2019ll be music wafting through the air to greet you. Come…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[15469,93,61,60,231502,231503],"class_list":["post-546072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-clare","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-willie-clancy","tag-willie-clancy-summer-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}