anyone going?
anyone been to it before?
i would love to hear about it…
and to know how i can contact them for this years school.
tried mail and phone, no answer.
hi eran,
if there’s piping classes, than i think this fella will be there union_pipes@hotmail.com
his name is roger and he’s quiet good on the uilleann pipes, he’ll have a link.
Brian Gallaher usually teaches there, or at least used to, possibly Eamonn Walsh sits in. Other teachers may be drafted in from NPU.
Tubbercurry is a place on the backarse of nowhere in mid dreary sligo [though I admidtedly only went there when the school was in it second year], there’s limited playing space.
www.sssschool.org/ should do it
[edited after looking up the web site]
Hmmm a little odd that nobody would reply! Sligo town tourist information might be a better bet, maybe there is a problem with the internet in Tubber ?
thanks all
i tried e-mailing the mail from the web site a few times but no replay…
also tried calling a few times the number from thier site with no luck
ill try through the tourist information…
thanx again
Miltown Malbay, on the other hand, is a busy metropolis. 
(I have to stand up for my boyfriend’s relatives in Tubercurry. They say it is lovely there.)
I hear the coffee is better in Miltown Malbay, though. 
Justine
And I have to complain as well. Schooled not too far away - and spoiled BTW - with some the finest TW playing I ever did hear - Tubber could be a place of adventure. At the time none of us kids had any idea there were famous fiddlers from that neck of the woods, Martin Wynne - John Vessey etc.
http://www.sligozone.net/Tubbercurry.htm
Thats how I remember it as well, but it could feel like the back of something on fairday( cowpoo ankle deep if you were a kid) when the wind and rain would freeze a devil…maybe it did..
I briefly attented that school last summer and I must say that the playing was very standardized (at least the flute classes are). The great old sligo flute playing was noticebly absent from the whole affair. Me and Eldarion asked for our money back after the first day. I don’t know about the fiddle classes or the whistle classes but the flute classes were an extreme dissapointment. All they taught were watered down tunes by marginalized players, shadows of the previous generations.
Again proving my point. A lot of what folks today are hearing is off of CD’s and at sessions which may or may not have the ‘scalded cat’ influence.
If you think they are that bad just imagine what they think of you! Anyway if it helps I would show you all I know in 10 minutes but I sound horrible. You probably had a bad luck. Read the ‘Fiddler of Dooney’, find out about Yeats. Now that would make your trip to Sligo an adventure.
What would you say the Chinese Mr Lai-n-Chieu 's Shop in Sligo Town sells?
If you’re refering to the chinese place right off the square, you’d have to ask Eldarion… I didn’t go in there, he did. Now as to the rest of what you said, I’m a bit slow so I didn’t quite figure it out. Were you agreement with me or were you saying that I’m full of shit and a horrible flute player to boot?
I have no idea how you sound, but I do know those folks can play but you’d be waiting a very long time to hear them talking about it. Maybe you were unlucky and arrived on a bad day for everybody?
Maybe I should explain my ‘dreary backarse of mid Sligo’ remark. I went to Tubbercurry when the summerschool was in it’s second year. I know, it’s fifteen years ago so lots of things will probably have changed. The bus trip from Miltown Malbay took ages, when we got off the bus I put down the pipes case and noticed I had put it on top of a used condom tht was lying in the street. Next we tried to secure a bed. Both BagusBs were booked out. So we were pointed to the local GAA pitch that had non existent toilet facilities. The moment we were considering to pitch the tent a row of heads appeared over the wall a few meters away. Next the lads from the halting site that was across the wall climbed over and proved extremely interested in our gear and the two women I was travelling with. We decided to camp elsewhere.
Half of Tubbercurry at the time seemed derelict, loads of houses were boarded up and had notices fro mSligo Co council posted on them that asked the owner to come forward or else the council would demolish.
There was some music in the [as far as I remember three] pubs. The one we played in made us very welcome, we had some great chat and one night two fluteplayers whom I with hindsight take for Patsy Hanly and Packie Duignan, walked in and blew us away with stunning flute duets.
We didn’t take classes so during the day there was nothing at all to do or nowhere to go. The stunning metropolis of Miltown Malbay offers the fine beaches at White Strand and good swimming at Spanish point, bicycle rent to go to the Cliffs of Moher but Tubbercurry offered nothing, just empty streets.
We decided to go to the piping recital. The piping teacher Brian Gallaher was already there when we entered the hall [musty smelling, one 100 watt light bulb, bare, on the ceiling. ‘Thanks god’ you’re here he said, ‘I was afraid I had to do it on my own, better tune up and start’. We turned out to be the recital. Most other recitals were organised in the same way: who’s in the hall? Great play a tune please.
On the way back to the tent in the dark I saw a man standing in an empty street. he fell over flat on his face, drunk, in another street someone was being beaten up by two other guys.
I thought the place had a depressing atmosphere and after two days I was glad to get a lift out of there. We drove to Castlebar and on to Westport, camped at a small campsite between the bay and the foot of Croagh Patrick. Next morning the mountain had disappeared in mist so our intention to climb it do penance was thwarted but were we glad to be out of Tubbercurry.
As I said, we met some great people, heard some wonderful music but I never felt the urge to go again, even though it is likely to be much better now.
That sounds depressing alright, Peter. I’ve never been there, so I guess I can’t say anything, but hopefully it’s improved since then!
I think I may be dropping in to Tubbercurry to visit my boyfriend’s uncle on the way from Donegal to Clare this summer, so I’ll have to reserve my opinion on the town until after I see it.
J.
Hmmm, Micheal Hurley and Seamus O’Donnell aren’t exactly Peter Horan and Kevin Henry… You could hear playing like Micheal and Seams anywhere in Ireland. You shouldn’t hear it in the Master Flute Class in Tubbercurry. And lets not even mention the inspired playing by Sligo natives Dervish…
Exactly what did you mean by your scalded cat reference and where you insinuating that I listen to too many cds? And what exactly is the point that you are proving… I’m dumb and to the point like I said. I don’t understand people who talk in half sentences and nor do I understand people who don’t really make any clear points.
Hehe Peter, the town has cleared up slightly since then. The major thing I noticed was all the young punks parked their little race cars in the square, got drunk and made alot of noise… as I recall Miltown isn’t exaclty the safest place to be in July as well, or the cleanest.
Okay, I was being harsh. Micheal and Seamus can play very well in fact, there’s no doubt about that. But can they play in the sligo style and are they good ambassadors/teachers for that style? Absolutely Not! Now that’s why I posted what I did. I don’t konw what Eran’s preferences are but me and eld wasted 3 days and considerable money going up to Sligo in anticipation that we were going to be instructed in the sligo style of flute playing. If Eran is interested in the old sligo styles, he/she would be dissapointed by what he/she found. So that’s why I posted what I did.
Hi,
I’m sure that there are still good players in Sligo here and there. Peter Horan, Patsy Hanly guys like that are still hanging around the area. We went for a Dervish concert, where one of the tutors, a Mrs. O’Dowd (Sheena I think?) played with her son, a Dervish member. She was really good and you can hear the lovely sweet old style in her playing as well.
But unfortunately the flute tutors available to us in all of the Summer School weren’t anything like what we expected (think pulsey, powerful Sligo fluteplaying). Guys like Peter Horan and Patsy Hanly, previously tutors, were no longer teaching by the year we went.
Because of our personal tastes, we didnt feel it was worth it for us to stay on in the classes anymore. The tutors were just teaching tunes in a style that I wouldn’t like to play in, so there was little I was inclined to absorb from them.
Moreover most of the time we were stuck in our B&B with nothing to do but occassionally practice and watch old cowboy movies. Oh yeah Seamus Tansey was also constantly parked in Killorans so we did go hear him play a bit. But altogether it was a chore to constantly think of what to do next.
I did consider going to the fiddle classes to learn the music from old styled musicians like the abovementioned Mrs. O’Dowd but I would think they would have found it very irregular and dropped the idea.
Well we did head back to Miltown after that little romp in Sligo, and were treated to a couple of lovely sessions with the likes of Kevin O’Reilly and Mick Falsey. It was nice and more peaceful after Willie Week.
A tip if you’re still considering to head to Tubbercurry though, DO head to Gurteen to hear Peter Horan play in sessions while you’re there. I heard that there are a few nice old styled musicians in that area too, and you’ll get to see the Coleman Heritage Center.
No, it can be a zoo, especially the second weekend of the WCSS is one to stay away from the town. But then, I can go home and be totally oblivious of what is going on in the town. or go to Mullagh or a country pub for tunes, like most sensible people.
Nope, didn’t hear anyone here play so I don’t know. Dervish I have heard, and the foolishness of it is too much for me who likes to dawdle along. I think these youngsters should stay home and learn to travel slowly before tearing up a road that they are as yet incapable of building.
As I recall it in that vicinity there was always a load of people who play and you’d never think it, and what’s more surprising, many a great fiddler lived and died there that nobody but a few locals knew. Like I said these people are very close. What amazed me as a kid - blow-in if you like - was the high standard of playing the TW that was almost assumed if a kid picked it up to play, and then the fun that would be poked if they made a boo boo. Lots of them would not want to ‘let on’ that they could play. But - and here I would not be worried to be writing a cheque on it! - make no mistake about it - play they can!
Next for what its worth to those who fly off to Galway or Clare in search of what is right there under their noses if they’d bother to look, I say don’t be in such a hurry and poke about a bit more- you might be very surprised who plays a storm for ya, and the welcome you’ll get from their families.
I once knew a Sligo man that the locals talked about. To be talked about as a musician is kinda like ‘you’d better be in the Coleman category’ because that is what they expect. Anyway this person would need a lot of coaxing to open up, I mean a lot. As far as I know my bro still visits with him and he nearly never plays at all. OC he is a flute player. So what I am trying to put across is not so much that Sligo is better than anyother place - it isn’t- just that it is different …waaaayyyy different.. to most that I know in Ireland.
I love Clare too, don’t get me wrong. As quick as the next person, I would be heading for Inagh for the dancing or a great house sessions , but Sligo is different. Over the years I know very few good players who do not marvel at the Sligo touch!
Apart from fiddlers Killoran - Morrison -Coleman - and the later school - Gorman - Vesey - and even Mc Gan, there also are a bunch of other instrumentalists not the least of which is Matt Moloy - ok technically he is from Roscommon but whos going to argue about a few miles - and you mentioned Peter Horan - now a very old man, the Tansey’s and a few more. Who can you name as many musicians from outside of Sligo who have had such an enormous impact on Irtrad over the last 100 years?
I would stay there even if I knew there was to be but few sessions because I know other places to go. Try the Rosses or the Coleman Center.
And if you really want to be blown away go to Matt Moloy’s pub in Mayo - it is not that far!
thanks for all the posts
im not going for flute lessons, im trying my best on the pipes and the tinwhistle.
thanks for the tips on the sessions and the pubs, anyother must-go-to places? ill also be in drumshambo and achill island,
what shouldnt i miss?