Festival of Irish Music Song and Set Dancing
Sligo Town, August 4th – 9th, 2008

Music and singing classes will be held in Institute of Technology (Route N16) from the 4th to the 8th August inclusive daily from 10am to 5pm. Classes will be held in Tin whistle, Flute, Fiddle, Bodhran, Mixed instruments (banjo, concertina and piano accordion) Traditional singing (English and Irish), Sean nos dancing and Set dancing and finishes on Friday morning 8th August at 12 noon.

Tutors for this year are Carmel Gunning – (Tin whistle, Flute and Traditional singing - English, Ronan Regan - Fiddle and Sean nós dance workshop on Thursday 3pm to 5pm. Mildred Beirne - Set dancing - class from 10am to 5pm in the Sligo City Hotel, Quay Street, Sligo town - Saturday 9th August - Seamus Duffy - Traditional singing in Irish. Also, P.J. Hernon - mixed instruments and Seamus O’ Kane - Bodhran.

Flute - Guest Flute tutor - Skip Healy. For over 30 years, Skip Healy from Rhode Island USA has been a renowned Grammy nominated performer of Irish flute and American fife music. He is widely regarded as one of the finest American fife and traditional Irish wooden flute players/makers and educators that the country has ever produced. He is actively involved with the “Rhode Island State Council on the Folk Arts Apprenticeship programme and the New England Council for the Arts and is a lecturer at University level.

In 1993, Skip established the Healy Fife and Flute Company in Rhode Island and specialises in the designing and building of a wide variety of wooden flutes, fifes and piccolos - finished and trimmed with sterling silver. He is Artistic Director of his own wooden flute festival called “Wind on the Bay” in his home town in East Greenwich. Tom Kearns from Perth in Australia (originally from Sligo) is special guest at the tutors concert on the 7th August. Tom is a very fine singer and has released two CD’s and two song books to date.

Evening entertainment during the Queen Maeve Summer School Festival will be held in the Clarion Hotel, (Canis Major Building) Clarion Road (Route N16) from 8pm each evening which includes music recitals/concerts, music sessions, traditional singers night. Also there is a Concert with Carmel Gunning featuring some material from her latest CD “Corran Hill”, Tutors concert and the Summer school closes with a farewell ceili with the popular Swallows Tail Ceili Band at 10pm on Saturday 9th August.

Enquiries from Director Carmel Gunning at email:carmelgunning@hotmail.com
and Tel: 087 6250454 or 071 91 62008