25th Jan in Cruises, Ennis.
Join us for tunes tonight from 8:30pm in Cruises Bar, Ennis. Jimmy Clancy and friends! I’m playing a few NEW tunes if there is time and we can relish this wonderful winter weather…or we can dream of sunny days……!!
Last week we had our friend Gerry for the last time before he headed back to Spain again – but he wants to return – often! 🙂 Gerry gave us a fine rendition of the song ‘She moved through the fair’ while accompanying himself on accordion!! Beautiful!
See photos below of our session last week and pop in to us tonight!

Gerry playing his most recent instrument!

Joe Curtin playing harmonica and singing.

Brian, Siobhán and Matt.

Joe, Jim and Brian.

Gerry on fiddle.

Siobhán and Matt – sister and brother! Both lovely singers.

Matt singing.

Jimmy Clancy.
Celebration time!! Christmas IS celebration. Music…..:)
Thurs 21st Dec at Cruises Bar, Ennis – Jimmy Clancy and I and of course Pat and Teresa (bar management!) will be hosting an OPEN session again – room for all at the inn! We had some lovely friends last week and very

Great tunes with Pat, Jim, John, Patsy and Howard.
good tunes too! This week Jimmy and I would like to wish all the people who are away from home for Christmas the very best for the season – to look after yourself, maybe make contact even if it’s with just one person, to have a little moment for yourself even if you’re surrounded by lots of people and to remember that we’re thinking of you. We will play our traditional Irish music JUST FOR YOU this Thurs! Happy Christmas/ Happy holidays – just …some happy times!
#irishmusic #christmas #sessions #coclare #wildatlanticway #ennis #mentalhealth

Howard on whistle, (Ronan getting ready to take some live video) and Colm on flute.

Jimmy, Pat and Jim on accordions and John on banjo.

Colm on flute and Andy on bouzouki.
Now, those photos above were taken by me with my phone but I’m going to upload some taken by Pat Keating (when he wasn’t playing the accordion!!) – they’re lovely I’m sure you’ll agree. Of course – he’s not in them.

John, Howard and Ronan. Taken by Pat Keating.

Colm Andy and Áine – taken by Pat Keating.

Andy, Áine and Jimmy – taken by Pat Keating.

Jim, (Ronan filming), John, Howard, and Patricia dancing. Taken by Pat Keating.

Jim, Patricia enjoying the fun and John. Taken by Pat Keating.
Thurs 20th July in Cruises, Ennis
Make your way into town tonight and join in with our open session at 8:30pm in Cruises Bar! I’ve a few photos from last Thurs (- some of you may have looked up the Facebook Group ‘Ireland’s Inner Beauty’ for the several Live videos taken that night;)) We had a lovely night with Andy, Paula and Patsy joining myself and Jimmy. We were delighted to have Andi again from NYC on fiddle and met David and his sister Angela on whistles and low whistles from Germany/Norway – friends of my friend Olaf Sickman! Maybe see you later. 🙂

Andi Leahy from New York visiting and adding to our session!

Paula on fiddle and Patsy on accordion.

Andy Lambert on bouzouki and vocals.

Paula and Patsy. Note in the foreground the wild rose from The Burren that Ronán brought in to us – with seed bulbs too!

David Westphal with his sister Angela from Germany/Norway! ( Áine Heslin, centre)

Áine on flute and Jimmy Clancy on accordion. Photo by Pat Keating.

David Westphal with his sister Angela.
Mon 19th June music in Kilkee!
Stella Maris Hotel hosts a lovely Monday night open seisiún at 9pm with Niamh Casey on fiddle – this Monday, joining Niamh are Matt Heslin on guitar and songs, and myself, Áine on flute and tinwhistle. So why not (after work maybe) throw on something for a walk on the beach or the cliff-walk and end up in the Stella Maris for music and something to quench the thirst! 40 mins drive from Ennis – worth it to smell the salty sea air!! #sea #sand #cliffs #wildatlanticway #irishtraditionalmusic #trad #session #kilkee
From Friels to Cruises
CRUISES seisiún tonight from 8:30pm.;)
Had a wonderful night in Friels Lynches Pub in Miltown on Sat night last with Sorcha Curtin and Caroline Tubridy. We were joined by Dolores Hamill who was looking forward to some West Clare tunes as was Denya DeVine from Cape Cod! We had a friendly and appreciative audience too, thanks all. Some photos below mixed in with some snaps from last Thurs night’s session in Cruises! That was a great night of music, which was fitting as Jimmy had laid to rest a dear friend and relation who loved the music always! Ronan from ‘Ireland’s Inner Beauty’ came in and took several Facebook Live videos during the evening (I captured a shadowy pic of him in the process!) Jimmy nor I feature in the photos but I’ll drop in one so you don’t forget us!!! 😉

Caroline Tubridy on concertina.

Sorcha Curtin on concertina and Denya DeVine on fiddle.

Dolores Hamill on concertina.

Áine Heslin and Jimmy Clancy. Photo by Betty Connor.

Michael on tinwhistle being Live videoed by Ronan from ‘Ireland’s Inner Beauty’!

Brian Burke on flute, Theresa on concertina Mary Caldwell on accordion, Michael McGrath out of sight! And Seanie on guitar.

Seanie on guitar/vocals.

Seanie on guitar and Andy Lambert on bouzouki – both sang songs during the night!

Paula O’ Regan on fiddle (beside her Patsy Hanrahan on piano accordion) Brian Burke and Michael Coffey on flutes
Thurs 27th – Cruises (photos from 20th)
Join us any Thurs in Cruises from 8:30pm…..here is a taste of last week!

Great photo by Patrick Keating of Satoshi doing his sean-nós steps!

Lovely black and white by Patrick Keating of Andy Lambert and Áine Heslin.

Lovely black and white photo by Patrick Keating of his son Pat and also Paula O’ Regan on fiddles.

Great black and white shot of Paula O’ Regan, fiddle and Michael Coffey on whistle! Photo by Patrick Keating.

Patrick Keating took this lovely photo of Mary Caldwell in conversation with Satoshi Aoki – planning a sean-nós dance? 🙂

Colm Nestor, Michael Coffey and Bernie Kirwin playing for Satoshi Aoki and Mary Caldwell sean-nós dancing. Photo by Andy Lambert.

Jimmy Clancy on accordion, Hannah on fiddle, Patrick Keating on accordion and Pat Keating on fiddle.

Mary Caldwell on accordion.

Colm Nestor on flute and Pat Keating on fiddle.
There is a fine video clip of our sean-nós dancers – taken by Colm Nestor!
Thurs 20th (reviewing Thurs 13th! :))
Cruises Bar in Ennis (https://www.facebook.com/cruises.bar/) hosts our seisiún every Thurs night at 8:30pm (Come in on 20th!) and I usually have some photos from the previous week to show – don’t always show everybody (Colm was gone again by the time the snaps were happening) Long post ahead warning!!
What a sad time for my friend Frank Corr over from Reading, whose mum passed away the previous week in Shannon. His brothers and spouses brought him in to the session so that he could be with us and he sang a beautiful rendition of ‘A mother’s love is a blessing’. He shared many great tunes with us over the night and we were delighted to have the Corr family with us.
Also, a musician who joined our seisiún last year pledged to return and true to her word, Lillie arrived last Thursday. Lillie is an artist as well as a fiddler and was running a workshop in Listowel with a friend. She has an exhibition starting THIS VERY FRIDAY there! Check it all out on https://www.facebook.com/LillieMorrisFineArt/?pnref=lhc.
Our very good friends Bill and Betty Connor returned once again before they head back to the States (Seattle) and we shared more good tunes and laughs too! Bill will be immersed in the flute workshop https://www.facebook.com/cruinniunabhfliuit/?hc_ref=SEARCH&fref=nf as we read this post!! Betty was joking that she might come up to our seisiún but that’s a BIT of a journey…..!!

Bill on flute and Lillie dancing ‘Shoe the Donkey’ with step-dancer Michael who came up with his wife and Lillie from Listowel to the session. He also danced a hornpipe later!

Bill Connor on my left and Betty Connor on my right! Thanks for six mths of new friendship you guys – Jimmy enjoyed your company too.

Lillie Hardy Morris, artist/fiddle player from Georgia.
We welcomed back our friend Patsy Hanrahan who, at the end of the night gave Paula and myself a lovely gift each of handmade crotchet gloves (Patsy had been busy during her time away!!) Photo incl. below.

Had to take a picture of these beautiful gloves made by our friend Patsy!
Here are some photos. Paula, Satoshi, Michael and Colm rejoined us – Bernie and John I think had not been before..but hopefully will return!

Betty and Bill Connor on fiddle and flute, John Moloney on banjo and Michael McGrath, accordion

Paula O’ Regan on fiddle.

Betty sang beautifully ‘Irish ways and Irish laws’ a favourite of mine!

Frank Corr on banjo (borrowed from our mutual friend Pat Costello, thanks Pat)

Patsy Hanrahan on piano accordion.

Lillie Hardy Morris from Georgia on fiddle

Michael McGrath, my friend from Ballynacally Bernie Kirwin on flute and Satoshi Aoki also on flute! Great night. Missing from this photo – Colm Nestor on flute.
April – Aibreán. Thurs 6th: Cruises Bar!
I must admit that I don’t speak enough Irish – I’d like to do more but…I’ll get there. Was helping my son with his Irish spellings last week and was reminded of the names of the months!! (My musician/teacher friends are tutting as they read this.);) So this Thurs with Jimmy Clancy on accordion and whichever of our regular visitors (we might have some new musicians again) beidh an craic againn! (We’ll have the craic) Drop in to us. Open seisiún.

Pat Keating.

Pat Keating, accordion and Satoshi Aoki, flute and sean-nós dancing.

Pat Keating (Jnr), fiddle and Pat Keating (Snr), accordion.

Jimmy Clancy, accordion and Pat Keating, fiddle.
Jimmy had his accordion tuned last week by Brendan Mulhaire and when we played at Cruises I heard the lovely new tone that he had given it – Jimmy was adamant that he wanted the box to sound well with a flute – and so it did! Amazing. We had some lovely sean-nós dancing from Satoshi at the end of the evening too.
30th March 2017
Hi again – it’s time for a session in Cruises Bar, Ennis from 8:30pm Thurs.
Some photos from last Thurs – we had more new visitors along with a few of our more regular participants – Aongus on pipes from Limerick originally but now residing in Belgium and Vincent on accordion from Holland.

Satoshi Aoki

Vincent (Holland), Michael McGrath and Aongus (Limerick/Belgium)
Also (but not in the photos this week) Paula O’Regan, Jimmy Clancy and myself.
23rd March (Thurs) Cruises Bar
Well, after all the Saint Patrick festivities of last weekend – it’s back to a normal night of tunes in Cruises Bar. Or is it?? 😉 Come on in and join us from 8:30pm – can’t guarantee what it will be like as it is different every week – but that is the joy of live music. We had a lovely night last week and great musicians – some photos below. (A few missing from photos – Andy Lambert, Steve Brown, Jimmy Clancy..)

Pat Keating, Michael McGrath, Brian Burke and Howard Winrow.

Des Mulkere, Paula O’Regan, Pat Keating.

Smokey McKeen from Maine.

Michael McGrath and Smokey McKeen
Thurs 9th March Cruises Ennis
Jimmy Clancy playing in Cruises tonight with myself and any other visitors who wish to join. Starting from 8:30pm. Some photos from last week and a facebook Live video that people enjoyed.
We welcomed back our Seattle friends Bill and Betty, and John brought a young banjo-player called Cathal Corbett towards the end (featured on the Live video) who added spice to the music.See you later at https://www.facebook.com/cruises.bar/?fref=ts
Don’t forget – next Thurs is St. Patrick’s Day Eve and we will be playing a stormer of a session for the evening that is in it!!

Betty, Cathal, Michael, Satoshi and John.

Andy Lambert.

Jimmy, Bill and Betty.
Thurs 2nd March Cruises session
Join Jimmy Clancy tonight at Cruises (Ennis) Thurs night open session at 8:30pm – I’ll be playing too (and who knows what visitors tonight!) and we’ll have musical craic for a couple of hours! Jimmy (if he has time) will work out not only who you are but who you are related to in Clare!! Even if you are from Sweden or Vermont – well ok, maybe who you KNOW in Clare. 😉 Here are a couple of photos from last week.

Brian, Paula, Adrian, Mike and Sorcha. Photo by Andy Lambert.

Áine, Jimmy, Brian and Paula. Photo taken by Andy Lambert.

Mike Coffey and Sorcha Curtin
Cruises Thurs night sessions 23rd Feb
While I still have the time – I’m uploading photos from the previous week. As time moves on things will get busier…less photos! Some of you will be happy about that maybe, but for the rest of us – here we go! (Don’t forget to call in this Thurs 8:30pm Open Session, before heading to Doolin for the weekend!) Ps also, we’ll be here the night before St Patrick’s Day.

Áine Heslin and Jimmy Clancy. Photo by Betty Connor.

Paula, Satoshi and Michael.

Andy! 😉

Michael and…Michael!
Make it a ‘Valentine’s Thurs?! (16th)
Here we go again and, have we a LOT of lovely photos from last week?? Yes, thanks to our good friends Andy and Pat! More even, by Ronan at ‘Ireland’s Inner Beauty’ facebook group – check it out! https://www.facebook.com/groups/1561847780795422/ Matt and I had a lovely visit from our good friend Frank Corr who lives in the UK/plays guitar, mandolin, banjo and sings! And of course all our other new and old friends as pictured below (hopefully with names correct..).
Join Jimmy and myself at Cruises again this and every Thurs from 8:30pm. Bring heart!

From the left – John, Adrian, Pat, Áine, Jimmy Matt and Frank. Photo taken by Andy Lambert.

Matt, Frank, John, Paula, Adrian, (Mary behind) and Satoshi. Photo taken by Andy Lambert.

Andy, Matt singing and Frank Corr (our good friend from England) Photo taken by Pat Keating.

Adrian on flute with Howard on tinwhistle behind. Photo taken by Pat Keating.

Satoshi on flute. Photo by Pat Keating..

Howard and Paula. Photo by Pat Keating.

Áine, Jimmy, Andy, Matt and Frank. Photo by Pat Keating.

John and Howard. Photo by Pat Keating.

Michael in the zone! Photo by Pat Keating.

Áine, Jimmy and Andy. Photo by Pat Keating

John and Howard. Photo by Pat Keating
The Easy Club (reel in Amaj)
The Easy Club – not necessarily an easy tune but a lovely one. We play many more besides that every Thurs night in Cruises Bar from 8:30 till about 11pm. Join us there this week or whenever you’re around. https://www.facebook.com/AineHeslinMusic/

Bill on flute, Paula on concertina and Brian on flute.

In the background; Brian on flute, Michael on accordion. In the foreground; Betty on fiddle.

Martin singing a lovely song about Co. Clare.

Howard in the background on tinwhistle and Satoshi on flute.

It’s all a blur!! 😉
Thurs 8:30pm (2nd Feb ’17)’Cruises’
Join Jimmy Clancy, myself and all our visitors – regular and new – in Ennis tonight. Open seisiún at Cruises Bar under the hospitality of Pat and Teresa! 🙂 We had no photos taken last week so here are a couple from the previous week. We’ll probably be here at Cruises St Patrick’s Day EVE – so you can be planning ahead now! 😉
Thurs trad/Cruises (- almost Feb?)
All are welcome to come in to Cruises Bar Thurs weekly at 8:30pm and listen/join in…we’re having a ball! Tunes, tunes and more tunes. Jimmy Clancy has a store of old one and new ones which keeps things buzzin’. Many visiting musicians each week – from all corners of the world! Some photos from last week taken by our visiting fiddler, Betty Connor – thanks for sharing them Betty!
Go to https://aineheslinmusic.com/shop/ to hear some tracks from my CD ‘The Tunes Foundry’

Orla, Áine, Jimmy, Bill, Patrick, Jerry and Colm. Photo by Betty Connor

Áine Heslin and Jimmy Clancy. Photo by Betty Connor.

Áine, Jimmy, Bill, Patrick, Jerry and Colm. Photo by Betty Connor

Sean nós dancing before our session finished – thanks Satoshi.

Áine Heslin and Jimmy Clancy. Photo by Betty Connor.
Thurs session in Cruises/Jan 12th
You coming in tonight? Cruises Bar 8:30pm. Put on your Uggs and snowboots…and be careful – could be some very precarious music played – risky reels, jigs in jeopardy and a hazardous hornpipe or two. (For those of you countries with lots of snow – just to let you know – we’re MAYBE in for between 1 and 3cm! So lots of prep!) Here are a few photos of last week – might not have everybody in photos, apologies. Lovely night.

Jimmy and Michael having the craic! 🙂

Michael, Betty, Bill and Jerry

Satoshi joining in!

Mick and Paula.

Orla on keyboards
Thurs 5th Jan 2017
Back in Cruises, Ennis tonight at 8:30pm with Jimmy Clancy and a host of visitors – feel free to come in and join us for the tunes, the broken resolutions, the keeping of the resolve to play/meet with friends and sure where would we be without our great audience who keep us motivated to play our best!
It was 2016’s last Thurs seisiún…!:)

Lovin’ the tune! Patsy, Ritchie and Michael at Cruises Thurs night session – also Michael behind Patsy on the left.
There was a great gang (flute players Bill and Áine missing from the photos) and many fine tunes were played Thurs night and I want to thank the listeners (mostly out of the pictures) who gave such great appreciation that everyone had a ball! Happy New Year to all!
See you at the Cruises Thurs night sessions in….2017! (Thurs Jan5th) 😉
2nd Thurs before Christmas! :)
Seisiún-time again for many Thurs 15th at Cruises Bar, Ennis. Join us at 8:30pm for tunes and merriment! I promise to wear the Christmas jumper….. NEXT Thursday! 😉 Here are some photos from last Thurs – including a special birthday lady who sang for us!! (Nóirín!)

Noirín Lynch included us in her birthday in the best way – with a song, beautiful! Thanks Noirín! x

Jerry from Canada and Clara from Ennis (Argentina!) and of Los Paddys de las Pampas

Quentin Cooper (The Fiddle Case) and Paula O’Regan on fiddle with Andy Lambert on bouzouki

Jimmy Clancy, Patsy Hanrahan and Canadian – Jerry!
Looking for tunes in Ennis tonight?
Come on down to Cruises Bar for 8:30pm where I’ll be playing as usual with Jimmy Clancy and a fine gathering of musicians (or maybe we’ll be quiet tonight due to the weather?? Nah! 🙂 Jigs and reels, waltzes and hornpipes – all very warming!) Order a hot toddy or maybe a nice meal. See you there. Bring your instrument if you play.

Cruises session captured by Patrick Keating
Above is a photo taken on the first night of Tradfest.
Thurs 9th in Ennis
Yes, it’s time for Cruises Bar again tonight. 8:30pm till 10:30/45pm. Looking forward to playing with Jimmy Clancy and I hear there are some visitors coming too! 🙂 Please drop in for a few tunes if you are near. https://www.facebook.com/cruises.bar/?fref=ts
I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the tourists/visitors who give great attention to our session – it makes our night special.
An exciting long weekend coming!
Yes – it’s that time of year when we mix music and shellfish!! And only the best; Irish Traditional music and fresh local oysters. The May Bank Holiday Weekend in Carrigaholt provides plenty of menu choices besides the shellfish too and all deliciously prepared.
Music everywhere as you can see in the poster below! On Friday I will be in Keane’s lovely homely pub (overlooking the pier) joining Breda (vocals and bodhrán) and Colin Sheehan (concertina). Please feel welcome to join us there from 9pm Friday 29th April.
Watch out also for the Loop Head walking festival – you could have the best combination of exercise, local scenery, local food and of course, local music!! https://www.facebook.com/LoopHeadWalkingFestival/
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