' Back to the Well' Sights and Sounds at the 2011 Ennis Trad Fest

Al fresco trad

Yes it is that time of year again.  The proliferation of people toting boxes of assorted shapes and sizes  wearing gleeful expressions signals the onset of Ennis Trad Festival.  This year they are blessed with the weather making the activity of session hopping all the more pleasant and made some al fresco trad
possible. Here is a round up of some of the sessions I attended and the people I met.











A mixture of youth and experience was on display in The Brewery Bar where experienced trad virtuoso Maeve Donnelly  joined  young Donal McCague who launched his new CD 'Bits & Pieces' at the festival.  Among the people I met were Kathy, a Boston librarian and Yorkshire man Mike who had travelled from his home in Spain for the festival.
Fiddle player Joan Hanrahan was anchoring the session in Cruises on Saturday afternoon where musicians spread over two chambers. Back in the Brewery Bar,  eleven year old Michael, a student of Joan McNamara's was having his first experience of playing in a session and aquitted himself very well with

Stephen Power

 John Kelly photographer with the Clare Champion, one of the sponsors of the festival   snapping some of the action.

Who would have thought , people playing outside in November. A group of young men were set up outside The Irish Shop making the most of the mild conditions.  Inside Stephen Power ably assisted by Tracy Crawford was signing copies of his new book  of photographs. A handsome volume of featuring shots of iconic folk in their own homes, worth it alone for the shot of Alec Finn of De Danaan (note two a's)  in his interesting looking drawing room.  In the Temple Gate Hotel, there was not one but two groups at opposite ends of the bar, (stereo trad session!)  I met Breton  photographer Miriam who was very impressed with the teenage group occupying the snug.

The ladies in O Connor's cake shop remarked they hadn't seen too many of the trad revellers. 'Tis more of a thirst they have I'd say', one staff member commented when I asked her about the cake eating habits of traddies. 

Comfy Trad  in the Old Ground Hotel

Margaret Rowan from Meath

'It is very important to come back to the well ' commented one participant in  one of the best  and certainly the  most comfortable sessions of the day  in The Old Ground Hotel where participants of Brendan Mulkere's workshop were trying out their new tunes. Boasting no less than six fiddlers, they formed a very cohesive musical entity and the tunes flowed efortlessy. One of the group Nicholas John Jones, a musical instrument repairer based in Oslo recorded a short interview with m (below)

Debutant



Quentin and Eoin: Céilí Bandits



Twin chambers in Cruises pub

 




Well done to the organisers and sponsors (including Shannon Development) of this great event at a quiet time of the year and attracting such vibrancy to the public places of Ennis Co.Clare. Last years report here

Gadding about during the Ennis Trad Festival 2010

Ennis Trad Festival brought a welcome  influx of musicians  and punters to the town last weekend. 



On Friday, I looked in to the Old Gound were there was a pleasant buzz of anticpation with visitors toting instruments of various shapes were checking in. On Saturday ,  I had lunch in the packed  Rowan Tree with my cousins Anne and Helen White   We  met chanteuse, Siofra Brock daughter of Paul  and   star of the West End  , Helen Ball, dining with husband Lorcan and baby.   Looking into Queens Bar there is a flurry of flautists and other assorted musicians  tootling  merrily away . On O Connell Street  dodging the heavy showers, I meet  travelling poet James Anthony Kelly and buy a copy of his poetry volume Porter and Emotion described as 'A vast diverse and varied collection'  . How could you resist.  I find it  somehow reassuring  that we still have travelling bards in Ireland .





Travelling Bard James A Kelly

  

 In Glór, I am just in time  to watch  the hapless presenter attempting to round up representatives of the runner ups who seemed reluctant to  collect their prizes and eventually  the winners ,  the Tulla Road  Ceili Band (not to be confused with the Tulla Ceili Band) are  eventually  shepherded  on stage to perform their valedictory set.  While some of the punters in my vicinity had selected them, there was quite a few who felt Corofin Ceili Band also deserved the crown but there was a spirit of general good humour generally about the procedings  and no one seemed to feel too hard done by.