Willie Clancy Week 2008

Denny · Post by **Denny** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 5:00 pm

Azalin wrote:
SteveShaw wrote:Young, old, male, female, fat, thin...
Bald too!! Yes?

...long as they wear a hat

Cayden · Post by **Cayden** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 5:08 pm

I think I recognize those feet. Is there a chance they belong to Patrick O'Dea?

Feckin hell, fair play to you, they are indeed Partick O Dea's.

I didn't go in during the day but I was on archive duty for the big concert tonight, loads of pictures from that but I am not going to post them now. The last time I was at the main concert was in 1981, to see Seamus Ennis. At the time it ran for five hours that night and my arse was sore from sitting through it. Tonight's was four and a half hour long and I thought it was lovely, many of the people that played earlier in the week were on but plenty of others as well.
There's by now a tinge of sadness at all the people we've lost over the years, for example tonight's concert ended with Cor Cuil Aodha singing Mo Ghile Mear. At Tom Munnelly's funeral two members of the same choir stepped out of the crowd and sang the same song as the grave was being filled, hearing it again brought back the sadness of that moment. Fintan Vallely launched a book of songs this week, he had a copy signed by all contributors ready for Marty Malley but Marty left us on the thursday before the week, Fintan sang his 'Song of the Teeth' in Marty's memory. At the same time there is a young generation taking over, Brid O Donohue started the concert with her own family and pupils and they played lovely, old John Kelly may be gone but his grandchildren are up there now playing, Tommy McCarthy has left us but his grandchildren are starting to make appearances, the same for Paddy Canny: he won't ever be replaced but Eimeir and Gerald are taking their own places in the big scheme of things, carrying what their grandfather passed on to them, Catherine McEvoy's son and daughter played fine music at the fiddle concert, Sean Talty played the fiddle while his son Cian has taken over the Harrington Bflat and played it well at the concert. And so it continues.

We did a quick tour of the town after the concert , it was busy enough but not at all the zoo it has been on some occasions in the past, actually it was quite civilised in an Irish town around midnight at the weekend sort of way. When driving home through the mainstreet a man waving a can of beer made us slow down while he kicked a broken pint glass off the road. A bit of old decency.

[added the morning after:]

Joe Burke:

Mick O Conor:

Half man, half steamengine, Conal O Ghrada:

Len Graham:

Fourteen year old Cian Talty playing the Harrington Bflat:

It's hard to photograph harmonica players as they cover up their face while playing but especially for Steve two attempts here at Rick Epping:

With the exception of two or three taken in the street all pictures on this thread were taken at official Willie week events in the hall, there were a million other things going on: official ones like the ceilis, the classes, piping-lectures etc and unofficial ones like the music in pubs in Miltown and further afield. Things I didn't even begin covering here.

There will be another one in 2009, if we survive another year to see it.

Uilliam · Post by **Uilliam** » Sun Jul 13, 2008 4:29 am

susnfx wrote:
Uilliam wrote:
susnfx wrote:Never mind...mean-spirited post.

Susan

Slán Go Foill
(I put in a post about something unimportant, then came back later and took it out.)

Uilliam

monkey587 · Post by **monkey587** » Sun Jul 13, 2008 7:52 am

I guess I didn't expect that Mick O'Connor was still around. I like his playing on the Castle Ceili Band and Charlie Lennon recordings, but hadn't heard anything about him aside from those. It's always nice to see that such people are still going.

Cayden · Post by **Cayden** » Sun Jul 13, 2008 8:00 am

Mick is still a powerful and active fluteplayer as well as a researcher and organiser of things.

MusicalADD · Post by **MusicalADD** » Sun Jul 13, 2008 8:52 am

A wonderful thread, thanks for posting all of these!

Steampacket · Post by **Steampacket** » Sun Jul 13, 2008 9:20 am

Nice to see your photograph of Conal O´Grada there Peter. "half man..." Yes, good description. Conal´s powerful flute playing is very inspiring. His latest CD "Cnoc Bui" is full of good tunes especially "Lesbia hath a beaming eye" and the last set "Grafspey & Come west along the road". What flute is he playing there, looks like the one on the CD cover, where the flute has pinned keys and the bottom D´s sound R&R-ish. Mick O´Conor´s Murray seems to have the same irregular end joint hole as mine by the way

Cayden · Post by **Cayden** » Sun Jul 13, 2008 9:25 am

The 'Half Man, Half Steam -engine' was how Gary Hastings described Conal, they were on together and had shared a class all week so there was a bit of slagging flying to and fro. Hastings also said he thought him the 'best player of polkas on the flute in Ireland Britain and Mongolia for that matter'. Doesn't he play a Hamilton usually? 'Lesbia' is just the extended version of 'Nora Criona' that O'Neill's gives, it gives away what was wise about Nora though.

Between the angle and the (lack of) depth of field I don't think you can tell much about the end of Mick's flute from the picture. Mine's perfect in roundness and finish.

claudine · Post by **claudine** » Sun Jul 13, 2008 9:44 am

Conal plays a Hamilton.
(i was one of the lucky 7 who were in Conal's and Gary's class

)

Steampacket · Post by **Steampacket** » Sun Jul 13, 2008 12:21 pm

Thanks Peter & Claudine. Claudine, one of the seven, then you must know Lauryn. She was staying out in Doolin at the same hostel we were. She was pleased with the class, Lauryn plays a plastic flute and has an Olwell on order

claudine · Post by **claudine** » Sun Jul 13, 2008 2:55 pm

yes, she was sitting next to me, and i was pleased when she joined the class because i had been feeling a bit silly being the only adult

Steampacket · Post by **Steampacket** » Sun Jul 13, 2008 3:41 pm

"yes, she was sitting next to me, and i was pleased when she joined the class because i had been feeling a bit silly being the only adult lol " Claudine.

Cool. I know what you mean, just on impulse I took a flute class once at Tubbercurry one year for Seamus O´Donnell, Colm O´Donnell´s brother. There were about 24 in the class, four of us were adults, the rest were kids and of course the kids were brilliant, snapped the tunes up really fast then sat there looking bored while us grown-ups struggled with a few bars at a time. I think this would have been 1998 or 1999. Just a one-off class for me, I put the flute away after that and carried on with the pipes.

Did Conal and Gary teach tunes or just technique?

flanum · Post by **flanum** » Sun Jul 13, 2008 4:59 pm

Azalin wrote: As usual, Edel looks fantastic... ahhhh Edel!!!

Fox by name Fox by nature...!

also i love the way (like last year) Peter starts the thread a day or two before the kick-off all grumpy, and then slowly day by day seems to get into it! it grows into him, by the end of the week he's fairly enthusiastic!! good on ya Peter, Willie week is like that.. an addiction!

now back to reality.. early shift! booo!

kkrell · Post by **kkrell** » Sun Jul 13, 2008 6:16 pm

Peter Laban wrote:Mick is still a powerful and active fluteplayer as well as a researcher and organiser of things.

Believe he's due for a WFO4 track. Let's see if he can organize that!

Kevin Krell

claudine · Post by **claudine** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 12:57 am

Steampacket wrote:"yes, she was sitting next to me, and i was pleased when she joined the class because i had been feeling a bit silly being the only adult lol " Claudine.

Cool. I know what you mean, just on impulse I took a flute class once at Tubbercurry one year for Seamus O´Donnell, Colm O´Donnell´s brother. There were about 24 in the class, four of us were adults, the rest were kids and of course the kids were brilliant, snapped the tunes up really fast then sat there looking bored while us grown-ups struggled with a few bars at a time. I think this would have been 1998 or 1999. Just a one-off class for me, I put the flute away after that and carried on with the pipes.

Did Conal and Gary teach tunes or just technique?

They were teaching tunes and technique, talking a lot about rhythm, how to make your music sound interesting, answering to all our questions, giving individual advice to every student. They were really great teachers, very kind, very funny too. Very helpful.