The Clare Festival of Traditional Singing
Encyclopedia
The Clare Festival of Traditional Singing is a yearly festival held in Milltown Malbay and Spanish Point
Spanish Point
Spanish Point is a village in the parish of Miltown Malbay in County Clare, Ireland, situated on the west coast of Ireland. The town is home to many holiday homes, and during the winter has a significantly smaller population. It is also one of the better surf breaks in County Clare...

 in the month November. The aim of the festival is to promote unaccompanied traditional singing
Traditional Irish singing
Traditional Irish singing is the singing of traditional songs in the native styles such as sean nós. Though some people consider sean nós to particularly refer to singing in the Irish language, the term 'traditional singing' is more universally understood to encompass singing in any language, as...

.

History

In 1989 Anthony Edwards, librarian of the Ennistymon branch of the Clare County Library, and Maureen Rynne, joined hands to organise a festival to promote traditional singing. Later Tom Munnelly joined in at the organizing committee. The first festival took place in June 1990 and was opened by then President of Ireland
President of Ireland
The President of Ireland is the head of state of Ireland. The President is usually directly elected by the people for seven years, and can be elected for a maximum of two terms. The presidency is largely a ceremonial office, but the President does exercise certain limited powers with absolute...

 Patrick Hillery
Patrick Hillery
Patrick John "Paddy" Hillery was an Irish politician and the sixth President of Ireland from 1976 until 1990. First elected at the 1951 general election as a Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála for Clare, he remained in Dáil Éireann until 1973...

.

The first years (1990–2002) is was held in Ennistymon. Due to the ill health of Munnelly the festival was moved to Spanish Point, but after to edition there (2003 and 2004) is ceased to exist. After the death of Tom Munnelly in 2007 interest raised again and a new series started in 2010. It is now also a commemoration of mr. Munnelly.

Participating singers with a Wikipedia page

  • Nóirín Ní Riain
    Nóirín Ní Riain
    Nóirín Ní Riain is an Irish singer, writer, teacher, theologian and an authority on Gregorian Chant . She is primarily known for spiritual songs, but also sings Celtic music, Sean-nós and Indian songs. Nóirín plays an Indian harmonium , Shruti box and Feadóg...

     (2000)
  • Nonie Lynch
    Nonie Lynch
    Nonie Lynch, born Nonie Crawford, was a well known Irish traditional singer out of County Clare....

     (2003)
  • Naisrín Elsafty
    Naisrín Elsafty
    Naisrín Elsafty is of Irish-Egyptian descent and is a distinguished exponent of sean-nós singing, an unaccompanied and heavily ornamented style characteristic of the Irish-speaking area where she grew up.-Cultural background:...

    (2010)
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