August 14th – 18th, 2013
www.westcorkmusic.ie

The 2013 Masters of Tradition will open its doors to the very best musicians in the land, presenting a series of performances that cover the full spectrum of Irish traditional music, in its most authentic form. Many of Ireland’s foremost traditional musicians have performed at the festival since it began in 2002. Previous performers include: Liam O’Flynn; Moya Brennan and Cormac de Barra; Steve Cooney; Kevin Crawford from Lúnasa; Brendan Begley; Susan McKeown; Maighread Ni Dhomhnaill; Donal Lunny and so many more.

As ever the Festival is headlined by Martin Hayes, the fiddler from East Clare, whose distinctive touch and extravagant virtuosity has brought the tradition to new levels. His famous trance– evoking sets with Dennis Cahill, who returns again this year, have mesmerised audiences all over the world.
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August 7th–12th, 2013
www.feaklefestival.ie

In this the year of The Gathering, the Feakle Festival is delighted to host traditional music players from Italy. This is no ordinary gathering as the Festival is also hosting a special conference on Irish Dancing and Parkinson’s Disease in the days leading up to the Festival.

The opening ceremony will be presented by Doctor Daniele Volpe an Italian neurologist and musician who is a frequent visitor to Feakle, where he was inspired to do research on the benefits of Irish set dancing and Parkinson’s. The results of his research will be presented to the conference. The conference is open to all, full details are on the website www.feaklefestival.ie

The programme as ever has something for all traditional music fans, from workshops with master tutors, concerts featuring Ireland’s finest, sessions, from noon till late, poetry, and so much more. On Thursday as part of the Festival collaboration with Dr. Volpe and his dance group and musicians, the Festival is hosting a special Gathering. This will be a café style evening of music featuring musicians from Italy and the best of East Clare. Wine, Italian and local cuisine will be served on the night.
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July 27th – August 3rd 2013
www.scoilacla.com

The annual Scoil Acla summer school takes place on Achill Island, Co. Mayo. Scoil Acla is Irelands oldest summer school, originally founded in 1910 and re–launched in 1985. Scoil Acla follows the usual format of daily music classes which run from Monday to Saturday on the following instruments, accordion, banjo, flute, concertina, fiddle, harp, tin whistle, uilleann pipes and bodhrán with beginners, intermediate and advanced students being catered for on all instruments. Other workshops available are creative writing, basket weaving, dancing and a course on Gaeilg’ Acla, the Achill dialect of Irish. Throughout the week they have recitals, poetry readings, creative writing readings, indoor and outdoor concerts, sessions, walks, talks and much more.
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July 21st–28th, 2013
www.fiddlersgreenfestival.co.uk

Rostrevor, Co. Down, Northern Ireland

Based in the scenic village of Rostrevor, the Fiddlers Green Festival provides outdoor Céilís, an open air stage, lunchtime, evening and night time music clubs, art exhibitions, walks, talks and the now legendary Literary Pub Crawl.
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July 14th – 20th, 2013
www.sssschool.org

The South Sligo Summer School of Traditional Music, Song and Dance takes place in Tubbercurry, Co. Sligo, from July 14th–20th, 2013.  Now in its 27th year and firmly established on the traditional music summer calendar, the entire community in Tubbercurry look forward once again to welcoming friends old and new for a week long total immersion in all that is positive and life affirming about our wonderful traditional music.
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July 5th – 7th, 2013
www.cflt.ie

An area long noted for its beauty and hospitality, the people of Cloghane & Brandon, Co. Kerry invite you to their first annual Music Festival from July 5th – 7th. Mick Hanly will open the Festival on Friday 5th at 7.30pm in Halla Le Chéile, Brandon. Following that will be music sessions in local pubs – Ned Gibbons & Friends in O’Connor’s and Turf in O’Donnell’s.
On Saturday, music & dance workshops will be held by musicians Dessie Kelliher, Gary O’Brien, Damien Mullane, Máire Begley, Samantha Morris and Tríona Mangan. The workshops will run from 11am – 3:30pm, with a showcase afterwards. Spaces are limited therefore booking is essential.
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June 17th – 23rd, 2013
www.galwaysessions.com

This week–long annual festival hosts a packed programme of events across the historic city of Galway including concerts, recitals, parades, street entertainment & oodles of sessions in the city’s many famed traditional music pubs.

To celebrate this special year of the Gathering the artists featured in the programme are predominantly Irish traditional musicians born outside Ireland or those who have spent the majority of their lives in exile. These include such household names as John Carty, Brian Rooney, The Conneelys, The McCartys, The Carberrys, Kieran Fahy, Kevin Crawford & Cillian Vallely, Colm Gannon, Jessie Smith, John Blake, Emmet Gill, Dave Munnelly, Winnie Horan & Mick McAuley.
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www.mulligans.nl

Mulligan’s is an Irish Music Mecca on the bank of the Amstel in Amsterdam, a few hundred metres from the famous Munttoren. It’s a musicians dream bar, long and narrow, the venue serves beer but not food, promotes acoustic music and is great place to catch up on the gossip around the trad and session scene in Europe.

They will be celebrating Mulligans 25 Years at the end of August, with a great week of live music and reunion of old musicians and customers. Host Miriam Feuth told us “we’ll be celebrating the fact that we are the oldest Irish bar in the Netherlands, possibly in the Benelux, and one of the oldest none–stop life Irish music bars in Europe. The celebration weekend will be from August 28th–September 1st.”

www.oaim.ie

Do you want to learn the Mandolin? If so, Paddy Cummin’s new Mandolin Basics course is the one for you. The first six lessons of this course are absolutely free, so log–in and get learning!

This course is aimed at the absolute beginner mandolin player. It begins with a series of six free lessons then progresses through to the twelve main subscription lessons. How to hold the instrument, proper hand / finger posture and good basic technique are all important fundaments that will be addressed in the early lessons. There will be a progressive study of scales, plectrum motions, and ornamentation throughout the series of lessons. The Mandolin Basics course will equip the beginner player with the necessary rudiments to journey along the adventurous road of Irish music making. By the end of the course, the learner will have a repertoire of fourteen popular Irish tunes, the ability to play basic chords and triplets and a deeper understanding of the Irish music tradition.

Join OAIM’s global community of Irish musicians, log on to www.oaim.ie  and sign up today!

Over 1,500 people attended the 43rd, Senior Scór All–Ireland Final in The Venue in Derry recently. Four traditional music groups representing the four Provinces took part in the competition. Cill na Mallach from Cork, Cumann Ruairí Mhic Asmáint, Port Chluain Eoin from Antrim, Naomh Fearnáin from Sligo and Dóchas Éireann from Dublin.
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