An Chonair Bar Session

An Chonair Bar in Dingle has long been a venue for traditional Irish music. A new session has been added every Monday at 9 pm. The location is Spa Road on the way out of town towards Conor Pass.
















The leading musician is piper Con Durham and he is usually joined by various musician friends. I attended the session last Monday and I must say it was fabulous. The atmosphere was warm and cosy with an open fire and the music was great.










We had Con on the pipes, two fiddles, guitar, banjo, penny whistle, harmonica and mandolin.

The customers were very engaged and there were several bursts of spontaneous dancing to the lively music.



Myself with Con

Scoil Cheoil an Earraigh

Scoil Cheoil an Earraigh 2009 took place from February 18 to 22 in the village of Ballyferriter which is a few miles west of Dingle.

Musical offering on opening night

Scoil Cheoil an Earraigh is a Traditional Music School which concentrates on the style of music and song from the Dingle Peninsula gaeltacht of Corca Dhuibhne. 2009 was the fifth year for the school. The participants were all ages and many of them were young.




The following classes were offered:
Harp Deirdre Grainbhéal
Accordion Breanndán Ó Beaglaoich & Eoin Ó Beaglaoich
Bodhrán Colm Murphy
Banjo & Mandolin Des Kelliher
Uileann Pipes Cillian Ó Briain
Fiddle Úna Ní Chíosáin & Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh
Tin Whistle Bríd Donnelly
Flute Aoife Grainbhéal
Concertina Cormac Ó Beaglaoich & Mary McNamara
Bag Pipes Allan MacDonald
Mouth Organ Rick Epping
Sean-nós Dancing Róisín Ní Mhainín
Singing in the sean nós style Aine Uí Laoithe, Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh

In addition master classes were given by Mary McNamara on concertina, Mary Bergin on tin whistle and Mick Mulcahy on box.

Rick Epping & his merry men
The Harmonica, Mouth Organ was a new addition this year and I was very happy to participate in the lessons. The teacher, Rick Epping is an American who has spent many years Ireland. He worked for Hohner for a number of years and it was he who designed the Hohner XB40 harmonica. The participants were all older men like myself. There is altogether very little interest in the harmonica in traditional Irish circles now-a-days. Rick Epping may well change that; everyone at the event was very impressed with his playing.

I was delighted that we did not spend all of our time learning tunes as is often done. Rather, Rick spent time explaining the instrument, demonstrating techniques and teaching us how to play in a better way. We learned how to bend notes and how to play an octave by blocking two holes with the tongue.

My daughter, Deirdre took part in the sean nós singing and she was delighted with it. It was all in Irish and it was in the old style(sean nós.)

There were concerts on Friday and Saturday evenings and there were lots of informal sessions that went on into the night. I joined the one at Hotel Óstán Cheann Sibéalhotel. It was lead by John FitzGerald on box with his wife Mary on keyboard and children Sean on fiddle, Kieran on concertina and Aine also on concertina. This is a very talented family from Kildare and I was delighted to spend the night with them. A number of other musicians also joined in as the night went on. This session as well as some of the others went on until the small hours of the morning.

Outdoor session on final day

Lively Session at Marina Inn

You would expect things to be really quite now after a busy Christmas in Dingle, and we did start out our Sunday session with just three musicians and three customers. However by the end, we had twelve musicians and the premises was pretty full. The session was led, as usual, by uillean piper Con Durham and Eon Knightley came with his accordion. There were concertinas, harmonicas, fiddles, flutes, mandolin and voice. And the music was great.

A Bit of German Culture

Friederich von Flotow

During the past two weeks Christine and I were in Leipzig to see our daughter and family. While there, we took in cultural events not available to us in West Kerry. Leipzig is a great musical town going all the way back to Johann Sebastian Bach who was Kapellmeister at the St. Thomas Church there. We attended the German opera Martha by Friedrich von Flotow (1812-1883) in nearby Dessau and a wonderful performance of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado at the Leipzig School of Music.

I have written about Thomas Moore in a previous post. The melody of his well-known song, The Last Rose of Summer, is the leitmotif of the opera Martha. Introduced in Act 2, the lovely and plaintive melody represents the young lovers’ longing. It seems that popular airs were often introduced informally to operas in the middle of the nineteenth century as show-pieces for the singers. In Martha the custom is perpetuated. There is a beautiful horn solo of the melody, very delicately played for this performance by our son-in-law, Paul Goodman. The song is sung twice, once by the female lead Lady Harriet Durham, soprano and then later by the male lead Lord Tristan Mickleford, tenor.

The Mikado was delightful and I must say that the translation into German worked very well. It was especially poignant for a place that was formerly behind the iron curtain to make a parody of the unbridled power of state officials. We were surprised to find that Sullivan who was of Irish/Italian decent did his musical training in Leipzig and spent several years there.

End of Season

With just 10 days to go to winter months November, December and January, the number of visitors to Dingle has dropped off significantly since the busy summer season.

Most pubs are half empty even on weekends. The sessions generally are fewer and smaller at this time of year.








However Marina Inn has been bucking the trend with lots of musicians. Last week there were 15 people playing, including a group from France that calls themselves The Chums.




It was more like a céilí band than a session. The music was fantastic. This week there were 10-12 musicians. The prospect looks great for the dark winter months.

Chicago Musicians at Flaherty's

A typical session has about half a dozen musicians. I was astonished therefore when I dropped into Flaherty’s Pub a few nights ago to find the place crawling with musicians.

In addition to locals Maidhc Dainín Ó Sé on box, Aoife Granville on fiddle, Deirdre Granville on harp, there were over thirty young musicians from Chicago. They travelled to Ireland to play at the Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in Tullamore and were making a few stops on the way. It is my understanding that they were invited to make a stop in Dingle by Deirdre Granville.

The buzz in the place was amazing and the music was great. They were supposed to leave for Killarney at 10 pm but nobody wanted to leave so they persuaded the bus driver to stay an extra hour.

Willie Clancy Summer School

Popular hangout for musicians

After several years of promising myself, I finally went with Christine to the annual Willie Clancy Summer School for traditional Irish music. It was held in the coastal town of Milltown Malbay in County Clare. It runs for a week, this year from 5 July to 13 July and the events go from morning to night.




Portable classrooms for lessons

The day began with a three-hour music classes for the various instruments, taught by the top musicians in the country. There were classes for whistle and flute, concertina, banjo, harmonica, button accordion, fiddle and harp.

musicians on the go

In the afternoon there were lectures and demonstrations and in the evening, a recital with a focus on a different instrument each evening. There are also singing and dancing lessons with an emphasis on the lovely Sean Nós or old style.

A group of English musicians

There were informal sessions going all day and night in pubs, in restaurants, on the street corner, anywhere and everywhere. It was amazing to stroll through the town and hear music coming from all sides.

Sessions at Milltown Malbay Restaurant

There were five or six different concertina classes and I joined one taught by Hugh Healy. Hugh is an excellent concertina player and a very good teacher too. The class consisted mostly of school age children with a few adults. I learned a few good tunes and some useful techniques.

I had to make do with a Kodac throw-away camera because the battery on my digital camera was flat.

Hugh Healy has a great CD on which he plays concertina together with his brother Colm on box. You can listen to it here.