This year’s Willie Clancy Summer School/ Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy, the 53rd, will be at Miltown Malbay in Co. Clare between Saturday 5 July and Sunday 13 July.
Last Saturday the Glór Theatre in Ennis honoured the festival with its annual MÓRglór Award.
The award event featured local and national traditional musicians including the O’Brien, Cotter and Kelly families; The Drôle and Cór Chúil Aodha, with Brid O’Donohue; Tim Dennehy; Bobby Gardiner; Kseniya Rusnak and Paul Dooley; Josephine Marsh and Mick Kinsella; Emmet Gill; Aidan Vaughan; Bríd Ní Mhaoilchiaráin; Marian Curtin; Therese McInerney and others.
The director of Glór, Marie O’Byrne, said: “We are absolutely delighted to recognise and celebrate the committee of Scoil Samhraidh and honour their outstanding contribution to the development and promotion of traditional music – locally, nationally, and internationally – in the company of many of the festival’s long-standing friends and allies.”
This year’s summer school will include a special presentation on the history of Irish traditional music in London as characterised by West Clare musician Tommy McCarthy (1929-2000), Tommy McCarthy and the London Connections: A Celebration of Irish Traditional Music and Musicians in the City, 1950s-1980s.
Family members, friends and colleagues of west Clare trad musician and co-founder of the London Pipers’ Club Tommy will share memories of the people, music and events of his days in London with archive photos, audio and video recordings, film documentaries, and live music.
Tommy’s life and times are also documented in Ken Lynam’s 2007 documentary film Handing Down the Tunes.
McCarthy was born in 1929 in Shyan, near Kilmihil in West Clare and from an early age showed an aptitude for picking up music very quickly, including whistle and concertina. In 1950 he took up the uileann pipes.
He moved to London in 1952 and worked as a carpenter and became active on London’s busy trad music circuit which at the time featured Roger Sherlock, Bobby Casey, Paddy Taylor, Raymond Roland , Con Curtin, Brendan Mulkere, Martin Byrnes, Danny Meehan, Brendan McGlinchey, PJ Crotty and many others.
Tommy was at the start of Na Piobairí Uilleann in Bettystown, Co. Meath, in 1968 and 1980 co-founded the London Pipers’ Club and played the folk club circuit in the 1960s and ‘70s.
He contributed to albums by Kate Bush and Horslips. His whistle playing featured on the backing music to the 1982 chart topper The Lion Sleeps Tonight by the group Tight Fit.
He was involved in the music for The Playboy of the Western World at the National Theatre, the films Three Wishes for Jamie and Young Guns and regularly performed, with his family, with The Chieftains in London.
He and his wife, Kathleen, returned to West Clare in 1991 and settled in Miltown Malbay.
Their daughters, Bernadette, Marion and Jacqueline and their families, also moved back to Ireland, settling in Clare and Galway. Their son, Tommy, moved to Boston.
Tommy died in 2000.
Tommy’s life and times are recorded in Ken Lynam’s documentary film Handing Down the Tunes (2007).
See also Dr Reg Hall’s 2016 book A Few Tunes of Good Music: A History of Irish Music and Dance in London 1800-1980
- Tommy McCarthy and the London Connections: A Celebration of Irish Traditional Music and Musicians in the City, 1950s-1980s
TUESDAY 8 JULY at Miltown Malbay Community Centre
It costs €150 to enrol for the week for classes, morning workshops, afternoon lectures, evening recitals, Irish language classes and céilis – except for the Saturday concert on 12 July which costs extra. (Registration is at https://www.scoilsamhraidhwillieclancy.com)
Students must also arrange their own accommodation and transport.
- For accommodation contact Maureen Kilduff on 00 353 89-232 0498 or email at kilduffmg@gmail.com
The accommodation list is here.
