Tag Archives: Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy

The interview conducted by Harry Hughes and Muiris Ó Rocháin with Willie Clancy for the first volume of Dal gCais was hugely important and is now a priceless piece of folk history as the great exponent of the art of piping talked about his music, great pipers of the past and the state of Irish music in the early 1970s. Q: Willie Clancy, you are considered one of the greatest living exponents of the art of piping. Can you give us some idea of the background to your music? A: I come from a very musical family, our family was part of the musical tradition of West Clare and that tradition included Garret Barry the blind paper from Inagh. Garret was a personal friend of my father and he influenced him to a certain degree. My father in time passed this knowledge and appreciation on to me. Apart from this, I came under the direct influence of the Travelling piper …

Fifty years after his death, this week in 1973, Willie Clancy’s legacy and name has never been stronger, writes Joe O Muircheartaigh, who spoke to the driving force behind the festival in the great piper’s name, Harry Hughes WHEN Harry Hughes saw Willie Clancy for the first time it was in his carpenter’s overalls when he walked around Miltown Malbay, with the rule that was one of the tools of his trade in the breast pocket of the dungarees he wore — he was going from one job to the next, or else up to his house on the Flag Road. There he was — the renowned musician, that Harry saw before he ever heard him on the uilleann pipes, or before he spoke to the man who 50 years after his death is revered as one of the professors emirati in the sky when it comes to the pipes. Because you can trace a line from Willie through to …

The Willie Clancy Summer School takes place from July 2–10 in Miltown Malbay and if you’re unable to make it, then at least you can catch some of it on the radio. RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta and Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy have a partnership that goes back 50 years and the station will be broadcasting from the heart of the festival all week. The then fledgling radio station was in attendance the very first year of the school, in 1973, and has been there every year since to record or broadcast live from the West Clare music mecca. This year, the live broadcasts on RTÉ RnaG start on Sunday with the Éirinn is Alba concert at 8pm, celebrating the connections between the Celtic nations. Musicians on stage will include Hamish Moore, Connie O’Connell, Maighréad Ni Dhomhnaill, Paddy Glackin, Louise & Mick Mulcahy, and groups from Cape Breton, Wales and Québec. Neansaí Ní Choisdealbha will present the concert. Then the broadcasting …

A SWEDISH filmmaker, whose work features the legendary piper, Willie Clancy, will return to Miltown Malbay next month for the first time since 1965.  Lennart Malmer travelled to Ireland in the mid-‘60s in search of music. His visit took him into traditional music circles in Dublin, Scariff and on to Miltown, where he filmed in the home of Willie Clancy on the Flag Road. The result of the young Swede’s musical journey is a film called ‘Porter och Pipa’ (Porter and Pipe), described as “a fascinating snapshot of the lives and music of some of the finest musicians in the history of Irish traditional music”.  The short film will be screened on Wednesday, July 6 at 6pm in the Community Centre, with Mr Malmer present.  The highly-regarded filmmaker was traced by Alan Woods of the Irish Traditional Music Archive (ITMA), who set the ball rolling for the filmmaker’s return visit to West Clare, after an interval of 57 years. Harry …