Willie Clancy Summer School

Willie Clancy week: ‘Every shack, shed and síbín has a concertina player in it’

Whatever road you take to Miltown Malbay in early July, there’s music wafting through the air to greet you

‘Go to any reasonably sized town in Japan and you’ll find an Irish pub’: The Japanese fans of Irish culture

Tokyo boasts regular Comhaltas traditional music sessions and an annual St Patrick’s Day parade, while Enya and Riverdance have strong Japanese followings

Heading to the Fleadh: Festival, cultural revival and Irish traditional music, 1951-1969 – Professing the power of ‘festival time’

Méabh Ní Fhuartháin brings subtlety and depth to her appraisal of the Fleadh’s progression from grassroots organisation to Ireland’s largest music festival

TV guide: the best new shows to watch, beginning tonight

November 24th-29th: Including Ballroom Blitz, an all-new female Matlock, and The Making of Do They Know It’s Christmas?

‘At one point there’s 3,000 people on the streets in protest against this jazz music’

This year’s Willie Clancy Summer School begins with a delve into the US influences that Irish soldiers controversially brought home after the first World War

The flutes, the flutes are calling – Frank McNally on Ireland’s most politicised musical instrument

The east’s awake: Japan’s bright young Irish trad musicians

The Toyotara Céilí band, who are playing in this year’s Fleadh Cheoil, are part of a growing number of young Japanese fiddlers and pipers playing Irish traditional music

No summer stasis: seasonal schools for adults

Schools that focus on trad music, Irish dance, Beckett, Joyce, Parnell, Yeats and public policy should keep adults of all stripes busy

Buena Vista Pipers’ Club: the uilleann pipes are calling Cubans

A group of young musicians in Cuba have taken the lead from Na Píobairí Uilleann to make piping their own

Tradfest: The old and the new meet in Temple Bar

The Olllam and Bellowhead have built their reputations on fiery live shows, which Irish audiences can experience at this week’s Temple Bar TradFest