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These ITMA audio recordings feature four Clare musicians who performed for and spoke to students at the 1999 Willie Clancy Summer School, and who have sadly since died
Since the late 1990s Kerry fiddle player Máire O’Keeffe has organised morning recitals and question-and-answer sessions with older source fiddle players and other musicians at the Willie Clancy Summer School. This is done for the enrichment of the fiddle players attending the School’s classes in St Joseph’s Secondary School, Spanish Point, Miltown Malbay, Co Clare. With the generous agreement of the performers, Máire and the School have facilitated the Irish Traditional Music Archive in recording many of these sessions, at first in audio and later in video.
ITMA audio recordings from its 1999 recording session are reproduced here. They feature four Clare musicians who performed for and spoke to the students that year, and who have sadly since died. They are the east Clare fiddle player Paddy Canny from Tulla, and, from west Clare, Bobby Casey from Miltown Malbay and London on fiddle, Tommy McCarthy from Kilmihil and London on concertina, and Joe Ryan from Inagh and Meath on fiddle.
With thanks to the performers, Máire O’Keeffe, the McCarthy family, and the organisers of the Willie Clancy Summer School.
Nicholas Caloran, Ian Lynch & Danny Diamond, 1 June 2012
