Tag Archives: Scoil Samhradh Willie Clancy

FRIENDS and family of the late Ashling Murphy arrived in County Clare this week having joined a cycle travelling from Tyrone to Miltown Malbay’s Willie Clancy Summer School festival in memory of the popular teacher. The 23 year-old primary school teacher and traditional Irish musician, who had been a regular visitor to the Willie Clancy summer school, was tragically killed in January of this year while out running in Tullamore. Her life has also been remembered with the announcement by Comhaltas  Ceoltóirí Éireann of three scholarships in her honour, with the organisation describing Ashling as “a light of inspiration”. The ‘Wheels & Jigs’ cycle is raising funds for the Ashling Murphy Memorial Trust which has been set up by the Murphy family and at the time of going to press close to €10,500 had been raised. The cycle was founded in 2015 and has raised funds for a number of different charities over the years. Ashling had performed with Fermanagh …

MILTOWN Malbay and the wider West Clare community continue to count the cost of the cancellation of an event whose economic value has been set at between €5 and €10 million annually. The Willie Clancy Summer School, whose cultural value is probably impossible to estimate, is among the casualties of the coronavirus restrictions. Its absence, on what would have been its 48th birthday, will be felt well beyond the Banner county. This year’s event had been expected to attract 1500 students  between July 4 and 12, with many thousands more attending for sessions, talks, seminars, dancing, concerts and the general festival atmosphere. Administrative Director Harry Hughes described the cancellation of this year’s Scoil Samhradh as “disappointing but inevitable” in the context of Covid-19. “We had been hoping things might improve in terms of the virus, but that wasn’t to be,” he remarked. “We are very disappointed for all of our students and tutors who attend year after year and the cancellation …