Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy 2026
Sráid na Cathrach, Co. an Chláir, 4ú Iúil - 12ú Iúil.
The 54th Willie Clancy Summer School, Miltown Malbay, Co. Clare, Ireland.
Saturday 4th July to Sunday 12th July, 2026.
Lectures and Presentations
Venue: Community Centre, Church Street, for all events on this page.
Dé Sathairn 4ú Iúil - Saturday 4th July
8.00pm - Oscailt Oifigiúil/Official Opening by Brian Mullen.
8.30pm - Breandán Breathnach Memorial Lecture - 2RN to Radio Éireann: Traditional Music and Irish Radio 1926-1951 presented by Harry Bradshaw.
Dé Luain 6ú Iúil - Monday 6th July
3.00pm - Northern English Fiddle presented by Owen Spafford and Mikey Kenny.
Dé Máirt 7ú Iúil - Tuesday 7th July
3.00pm - A tribute to Nicky and Anne McAuliffe, renowned traditional musicians, exponents of the Sliabh Luachra musical heritage, and TG4 Gradam Ceoil Winners. Presented by Máire O'Keeffe, fiddle player, recording artist, and tutor at Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy. Venue: Community Centre.
Dé Céadaoin 8ú Iúil - Wednesday 8th July
3.00pm - Lifting the Veil on Tommie Potts presented by Seán Potts and Aoife Nic Cormaic
Déardaoin 9ú Iúil - Thursday 9th July
2.30pm - A Harper’s look at the Music Manuscripts of Patrick O’Neill (1765-1832) presented by Kathleen Loughnane.
Dé Sathairn 11ú Iúil - Saturday 11th July
2.30pm - Beyond the Veil: Songs of Death, Grief and Resilience presented by Elizabeth Healy.
Lecture information
Oscailt Oifigiúil/Official Opening by Brian Mullen, traditional singer, radio presenter, and tutor at Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy.
Brian Mullen was born in Derry where he still lives. His mother’s family were all singers and he sang pop and folk songs as a teenager. At University in Bangor, North Wales, he met musicians who had links with Ireland and through them got to know such singers as Nicolás Tóibín in Ring, Co. Waterford, and Mick Flynn in Miltown Malbay, Co. Clare. While studying Irish at NUU Coleraine, Co Derry, he met Joe Holmes, Len Graham and Eddie Butcher, with the latter having a lasting influence on his style and repertoire. He has a large and eclectic repertoire of songs, including English, American and Scottish ballads, music hall ditties, and songs in Irish.
Brian has broadcast on Radio Foyle and Radio Ulster and currently presents Caschlár on BBC Radio Ulster, a programme featuring music from all over the world. He co-presents the Singing Seminars & Workshops at Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy.
Brian will open the school at 8.00pm on Saturday 4th July.
Breandán Breathnach Memorial Lecture - 2RN to Radio Éireann: Traditional Music and Irish Radio 1926-1951
Harry Bradshaw began his career working in Dublin recording studios before joining RTÉ Radio at the GPO in 1968. Starting as a sound engineer, he later became a producer in the Music Department where he focused on traditional music and folklore programmes. He had a distinguished career as a radio producer with RTÉ and is particularly associated with two seminal radio programmes: The Long Note, which he produced from 1978 until it concluded in 1990, and The Irish Phonograph series featuring 78rpm recordings from the 1920s and 1930s. He also produced a folklore series, Folkland: Music of the People. In 1988 he produced the Bunch of Keys, an album incorporating the contents of nine acetate discs originally recorded by uilleann piper Johnny Doran in 1947. After leaving RTÉ he established his own independent production company which provided specialist recording and remastering facilities. In 2008 he was awarded a TG4 Gradam Comaoine (Outstanding Contribution Award) for his work in Irish traditional music.
Lecture summary
Irish radio began in 1926 when 2RN began broadcasting on the 1st of January that year. From its inception, the new station formulated a music policy which regularly featured traditional musicians, a range of Irish song styles, and céili bands.
This strong Irish music policy culminated 21 years later with the station, now re-named Radio Éireann, appointing collectors to record traditional music for broadcast throughout the country. The arrival of new recording technologies and the Mobile Recording Unit facilitated a remarkable expansion in broadcasting and, consequently, the popularising of traditional music.
Harry will present his lecture at 8.30pm on Saturday 4th July.
Northern English Fiddle
Mikey Kenney and Owen Spafford are two fiddlers from the North of England (Liverpool, Lancashire, and Leeds, Yorkshire, respectively) who met at a fleadh organised by Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann in Leeds and formed a musical partnership over their mutual interest in both English and Irish traditional music and their shared experiences playing for dances across the country. They've since gone on to develop strong reputations as performers and collectors of regional dance music from across the northern counties of England.
Mikey Kenney is a traditional fiddle player and musicologist from Liverpool. Held in high regard by his peers, he is an accomplished recording artist and producer, with his own releases receiving much acclaim. An experienced educator, Mikey has been hosting workshops on the subject of fiddle-playing traditions for many years. A member of the Liverpool Céilí Band and the current Vice Chair of the Liverpool branch of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, he is steeped in the Liverpool-Irish fiddle tradition and it was in Liverpool that he also began to develop an appetite for researching and learning the traditional music of Historic Lancashire. He works closely with Heritage Learning Lancashire and co-founded the Lancashire Turns and Tunes project, an educational workshop for schools investigating Lancashire fiddle music and clog dancing. He spent the last two and a half years as Musical Director for the Lancashire Youth Folk Ensemble and is currently developing a recording archive to serve as an educational resource for Lancashire's traditional music.
Owen Spafford is a fiddle player and composer from Leeds. He has performed for the leaders of the commonwealth states, toured with Giffords Circus, and received a scholarship to study composition at the Royal Academy of Music. Owen is also an All-Britain Fiddle Champion at Fleadh Cheoil na Breataine, BBC Young Composer Competition nominee, and has studied with Sam Amidon and John Dipper. Equally at home in a traditional session as he is in a free improvisation workshop, Spafford's understanding of the oral tradition and love for vernacular music from around the world enables an inventive and thoughtful fiddle style. In 2022 Owen released a debut album with guitarist Louis Campbell which Martin Hayes described as “a beautiful, moody and tasteful recording”.
Mikey Kenney
Owen Spafford
Lecture Summary
The presenters will be talking about their relationship with the tunes they perform, the geographical and social context of the source material, and the thoughts and processes involved in interpreting tunes from the original manuscripts. They will discuss the stylistic traits of the source material and their own stylistic input as fiddle players. They will also explore the differences and similarities between the traditional music of England and Ireland as well as the influence of Irish migrants on Northern English culture.
Mikey and Owen will present their lecture at 3.00pm on Monday 6th July.
Tribute to Nicky and Anne McAuliffe
The renowned husband and wife duo from Co. Kerry have devoted their lives to teaching Irish traditional music since the early 1970s. In recognition of this they will be the recipients of the 2026 Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy Tribute. They were members of the Brosna and Desmond Céilí Bands and prominent in Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann and Siamsa Tíre, Both were with the Brosna when it won an All-Ireland Fleadh title in 1972, and part of the CCÉ North American tour in 1975. Individually they have won several awards at the fleadhanna competitions.
They have a deservedly high reputation as tutors and, while their teaching was primarily in the Kerry-Cork area, they have also taught at many summer schools and festivals throughout Ireland and overseas. Nicky has taught fiddle at Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy for many years and Anne has taught whistle, and both have made a huge contribution to traditional music tuition and performance at the School. As notable exponents of the Sliabh Luachra musical heritage, they were presented with the Dedication to the Music of Sliabh Luachra Award at the Patrick O’Keeffe Traditional Music festival in 2011. In 2019 they received the TG4 Gradam Saoil - Lifetime Achievement Award - in recognition of their life-long dedication to traditional music.
The Tribute will be presented by Máire O’Keeffe, well-known fiddle player and tutor who has taught Irish traditional music worldwide. At Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy she has developed - and directs - an archive project recording the tunes and memories of older fiddle players, and sharing the knowledge with a younger generation of musicians. She presented The Long Note programme on RTÉ Radio 1 from 1990 to 1992 and was a member of the group Macalla in the 1980s. Máire has collaborated with various artists, including Kevin Conneff, Jackie Daly, Johnny O’Leary, John Faulkner, Dónal O’Connor, Éilish O’Connor and the Cape Breton fiddle player, Jerry Holland. In 2009 she was artist-in residence at the Cape Breton Celtic Colours International Festival
The tribute will be presented at 3.00pm on Tuesday 7th July.
Lifting the Veil on Tommie Potts
Seán Potts is author of Tommie Potts: The Sorrowful and the Great published by ITMA in October 2025 along with its sister publication The Unbroken Music of Heaven: The Music of Tommie Potts by Aoife Ní Bhriain. In this presentation ITMA’s Seán Potts and RTÉ’s Aoife Nic Cormaic will explore the extraordinary life, music and unique artistic process of the legendary Dublin fiddler.
Aoife Nic Cormaic is a fiddle player and broadcaster from Dublin. She produces ‘Céilí House’ on RTÉ Radio 1 and presents and produces the weekly traditional music programme, The Rolling Wave. She has won numerous awards for her radio and television programmes including an IFTA, Gradam Chumarsáide an Oireachtais, and a Celtic Media Festival Award in 2022.
She has an MA in Traditional Music Performance from DIT and in 2013 she released her debut solo album Cuas na bhFáinleog/The Hollow of the Swallows featuring a collection of her own newly composed tunes.
Uilleann piper and author Seán Potts was born in Dublin in 1967 into a family steeped in traditional music. His father Seán was a founding member of The Chieftains while Seán’s great grandfather, Jonn Potts, father of Tommie Potts, was a renowned uilleann piper who came from South Wexford to live in Dublin in the 1890s. Seán Potts Snr was also former chairman and president of Na Píobairí Uilleann and he spent the latter part of his life actively promoting the instrument. Seán Potts has toured internationally and performed extensively since his teenage years and was a regular teacher and performer at Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy since the 1980s. Appointed to the staff of the Irish Traditional Music Archive in December 2021, Seán headed up an Arts Council Commissioned project to produce the film A Portrait of an Artist: Seán Keane which was screened at Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy 2022 and released publicly following Seán’s sudden death in May 2023.
Aoife Nic Cormaic
Seán Potts
Lecture summary
Legendary Dublin fiddler Tommie Potts (1912-1988) inherited a rich musical tradition from his own family but developed a unique, idiosyncratic style of his own. Technically gifted as a fiddle player and with an inquisitive artistic mind, he experimented with traditional tunes and, through his own compositions, sometimes introduced classical and jazz motifs, breaching the structural, melodic and rhythmic conventions of traditional music.
An artist of serious integrity, he was a reluctant public performer and honed his extraordinary gift in the parlour of his Dublin home. While his music was completely unique, and he was often an isolated figure within the tradition, he retained a strong connection with the tradition itself, particularly with Co. Clare musicians.
Tommie Potts’s musical legacy has been championed by Micheál Ó Súilleabháin and Tony MacMahon and his musical legacy influences many leading contemporary traditional musicians.
To read more about Tommie Potts please visit this page.
Seán and Aoife will present their lecture at 3.00pm on Wednesday 8th July.
A Harper’s look at the Music Manuscripts of Patrick O’Neill (1765-1832)
Kathleen Loughnane is highly regarded for her work in arranging traditional Irish dance tunes and airs for the harp, and also for researching the music of Irish harp composers of the 17th and 18th centuries. In 1990, with Mary Bergin and Dearbhaill Standún, she co-founded Dordán, whose mix of Irish and Baroque music has received widespread acclaim. Dordán received the National Entertainment award for traditional music in 1993. Kathleen has 4 CDs and accompanying books to her credit, Affairs of the Harp, Harping On, Harp to Heart and her most recent release The Harpers Connellan. She has taught in Ireland and at major festivals in the US, Japan and throughout Europe. Her arrangements have appeared in various publications and feature on the Harp Syllabus of The Royal Irish Academy of Music. Kathleen is currently researching the manuscripts of Patrick O Neill and making a selection from the manuscripts to arrange for Irish harp.
A native of Nenagh, Co Tipperary, she has lived in Galway since 1982. For many years she has been closely involved with the work of Cairde na Cruite, Cruit Éireann, and Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy whose teaching initiatives and concerts have contributed immensely to the burgeoning interest in harp playing and harp studies among younger musicians.
Kathleen Loughnane
Lecture summary
In April 2008 a very important collection of traditional music was purchased by the National Library of Ireland. The catalogue of the Library lists eight items in the collection which spans MS44,80/1 to MS44,806/8. It was collected by Patrick O’Neill of Owning, Piltown, Co. Kilkenny in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
O’Neill, uilleann piper, fiddle player and singer, was born in 1765 into a period of Irish history in which English was the language of the ascendancy, commerce and authority, and where a rich Gaelic linguistic and musical culture was almost destroyed. A cultured and educated man, in touch with his own Gaelic roots, he attempted in his place and time to preserve what still could be saved from the gradual erosion of an Irish way of life. His collected work represents and preserves the traditions of the wider community that surrounded him.
To read a more detailed profile of Patrick O’Neill please visit this page.
Kathleen will present her lecture at 2.30pm on Thursday 9th July.
Elizabeth Healy was born in Dublin but now lives in Westport, Co Mayo. Her musical interests include traditional and folk music, jazz and Americana. Over the years she sang with various groups and choirs including the Blue Grass group Wild Blue Yonder and the jazz trio Wabi Sabi. She currently sings with Cór Mhaigh Eo. Since 2009 she has focused on traditional singing and was guest singer at An Góilín, Dublin, and Cíorcal in Falcarragh, Donegal, in 2023. She will be performing at Féile Cheoil Mhaigh Eo in June 2026.
Fascinated by the category of songs called revenant songs, she has carried out extensive research into the genre and developed a presentation which she has delivered at various traditional events such as the Drogheda Traditional Music and Singing Weekend, 2024, and the Frank Harte and Frank Finn Traditional Singing Festivals in 2025. Online presentations include the San Francisco-based Spring Harmony Festival and the US-based Ballad Zoom, 2025.
Beyond the Veil: Songs of Death, Grief and Resilience
This is a work-in-progress and Elizabeth continues her revenant song researches. She recently received a bursary from Wild Nephin National Park to explore connections between Revenant Songs, Landscape, Community and Sustainability.
Elizabeth Healy
Lecture summary
In this presentation Elizabeth Healy will share her fascination for an important - though largely unexplored - aspect of our cultural heritage: the genre of traditional songs known as Revenant Songs. Deeply rooted in Irish and international folklore, these songs narrate tales of the dead returning, mostly in human form, to resolve unfinished earthly matters. Elizabeth will discuss the various features and cultural significance of the songs, their original role in death and mourning, as well as their potential current value in addressing themes of grief, loss and resilience. She will illustrate her talk by singing examples of the genre and playing recordings by other singers.
Elizabeth will present her lecture at 2.30pm on Saturday 11th July.