Killarney Music School

Back from Tralee, we do a quick nap (another salient feature of these tours, time for a nap) and dinner. Then we board the bus for a short drive into town for a visit to and concert by the Killarney School of Irish Music.The students there begin with penny whistle and go on to learn their choice(s) of fiddle, flute, guitar, harp, banjo, concertina, bodhran (hand drum), uillan pipes, button box, and voice. This provides for an ongoing diaspora of pub seisún players and singers for the future.We’re treated to an hour concert of trad music, including two accompanied vocals, Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears, and Caledonia, two of our favorites, and an instrumental Josephine’s Waltz. Waltzes are not a big thing in trad, and according to the leader, what’s there is either a slowed-down jig or else stolen from Scandinavia.