The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
The festival takes place from this Sunday to Sunday, July 21. While it started out as a weekend of set-dancing, it is now a week-long festival of music, song and dance.
The festival will open on Sunday at 8pm in the Abbey Hall, Clarecastle, with a concert by Folk The Recession Band featuring Brendan Begley from Dingle, Eleanor Shanley from Leitrim, Mike Hanrahan from Ennis and Frankie Lane and Paul Kelly of the Fleadh Cowboys Band.
With a selection of songs by composers such as Marty Robbins, Tom Paxton, Jesse Winchester, Joni Mitchell, Johnny Cash, Stephen Foster, Chuck Berry, Stockton’s Wing and Woody Guthrie, combined with their own arrangements of traditional tunes, it will be a feast of folk music. The band has been in demand at concerts and festivals both here and internationally since forming a number of years ago. Proceeds from the concert go to the District and Daycare Centre in Clarecastle.
The festival will also hold music classes for beginners and improvers in tin whistle, fiddle, concertina and accordion at the GAA Headquarters in Clareabbey on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 7pm to 8.30pm.
Junior set-dancing classes for beginners will take place in the Abbey Hall, with Michelle Downes of the John Fennell School of Dancing on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 6.30pm to 8.30pm.
In addition, Irish language classes take place in the Clarecastle Daycare Centre on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 7.30pm to 9pm. On Wednesday night, Mike Mahony will hold a set-dancing workshop in the Abbey Hall at 9pm.
Monica Morgan from Corofin will teach traditional sean-nós singing classes in the daycare centre on Saturday, July 20 from 10.30pm to 12noon, while sean-nós dancing classes will be conducted by Emma O’Sullivan in the Abbey Hall the same day from 5pm to 8.30pm.
There will be a tribute night to John Joe Casey, the great Clarecastle fiddle player and concertina player, who composed many tunes on Thursday at Navin’s Bar at 9pm.
Meanwhile, on Friday night, Power’s Lounge hosts the singers’ club at 9pm, with guest singers and story tellers visiting from all over the country. The Fear an Tí this year is Pat Costello of Shaskeen.
The ceilí mór takes place on Saturday night, with music provided by The Star of Munster Céilí Band at the Abbey Hall at 10pm. On Sunday morning at 9am, an Aifreann Tradisúnta for deceased members of Comhaltas will be held, followed by a seisiún with the young members of the Comhaltas branch from 2pm to 4pm.
Sunday afternoon sees the outdoor Céili at the Crossroads at Kerin’s Cross with the Four Courts Céilí Band from 5pm to 8pm. This will close the festival and in conjunction with the Gathering, there will be a fireworks display in Clarecastle village at 9pm.
