The 9th Annual Gathering Irish Festival (www.thegathering.ie) convenes in Killarney February 20-24, and has celebrated the Sliabh Luachra tradition since the Millennium began in 2000 just west of those Rushy Mountains uniting Kerry, Cork and West Limerick into a cultural core that is one of the most vibrant traditions in Irish music.
Based in the Gleneagle Hotel and its Irish National Events Center is a mid-winter carnival (oops, sorry it is spring in Ireland now) that attracts the devout from Europe, Asia, North America and from all over Ireland and Britain.
There are pilgrimages out to Sliabh Luachra and even to the gravesite of one of its greatest exponents, John O’Leary, the box player. Dancers have the polka king Timmy “the Brit” McCarthy on hand with historian Pat Murphy, also a dancing master and five giant ceilithe with the likes of the Allow, Abbey and Five Counties Ceili Bands to stir them up.
Read on »