*Photograph: John Sheridan
MILTOWN MALBAY enjoyed a Willie Clancy week like no other with the summer school bringing unprecedented crowds to North-West Clare and record days in business.
Aided by the glorious sunshine and the introduction of a new traffic management plan, Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy brought a tremendous boost to the economy in Miltown Malbay and surrounding communities of Spanish Point, Lahinch, Quilty and Mullagh.
If it’s music you want, come to Clare and 1,600 students honed their musical skills at the 54th annual summer school which had accordion classes in Mullagh, banjo classes in Quilty and fiddle lessons in Spanish Point. A host of recitals, concerts, lectures, presentations, workshops and céilís went down a treat in the locality.
Businesses received a timely bounce with thousands of visitors soaking up Willie Clancy week from local pubs, restaurants and cafes while accommodation providers in North-West Clare were among those to benefit from the surge in visitors.
Measures introduced such as barricades and no parking along Main Street, four banks of portaloos plus Mary Cleary allowing the use of her land to provide parking for 220 cars which was then manned by volunteers. Organisers, business owners and residents have all hailed the traffic management plan with adding to the success of the week.
David Hillery of Hillery’s Bar on Main Street said Willie Clancy week was “very successful. It was probably the busiest we ever had, people say last year was a huge event in terms of numbers but this year by the end it turned out to be bigger, from a business point of view it was a very successful week”.
According to the publican, numbers were “typical Willie Clancy” for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday but “from Wednesday night the numbers exploded from the get-go until closing, my own bar was full, I’ve never experienced numbers like it. There were queues outside every door of the pubs from early afternoon. It was a phenomenal week to do business in”. He told The Clare Echo, “It is a huge injection, we see towns and villages across the country that aren’t lucky enough to have an event like the summer school, you can see how they are physically struggling, we have Willie Clancy week in Miltown it gives every business not just pubs and shops but B&Bs and so on a huge cushion and a bonus platform because of the success of the school”.
Hillery was born in the pub and took over running the establishment following his father’s death in 1997. “I’m aware of Willie Clancy all my life, I’ve seen it grow quite significantly from COVID and you can see it year on year for turnover and stock, from COVID the numbers have gone through the roof. I referenced my last year order sheet and I added on a percentage to have a cushion, even at that I ran out of stock on quite a good few products, we couldn’t keep cider on the shelf or Coors, that will tell you it was bigger than last year because we put more on our order sheet and still ran out of some drinks”. He continued, “Because of the hot weather, cider products were very popular, West Coast Cooler went down well, Coors is always popular and Guinness held its own funnily enough, it still had a huge percentage sale”.
Administrator of Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy, Harry Hughes told The Clare Echo, “We can regard it as a success, we had well attended classes, lectures, concerts and events so we’re very happy with the class levels and tuition delivered and performances from guests overseas”. À La Danse from Quebec and the Yershovy sisters from Ukraine were some of the overseas acts who took to the stage of the Mill Marquee for an international concert on Tuesday.
He confirmed that 1,600 students partook in this year’s summer school. “It is quite a big number and we have several thousand more coming into the town during the week attending one or two weeks, some of them not attending any event at the summer school but as casual visitors to the pubs and hotels. There was up to 4,000 or 5,000 more people in the town”.
Numbers of students were capped this year, Harry explained. “We had more last year but we decided to cap the numbers this year for a number of reasons. We were running out of suitable venues, we like to use venues that are suitable and comfortable and where the tutor and student can learn and practice, we’ve been coming to an end in getting those type of venues and finding it more difficult, we decided to tap numbers on tin whistle, concertina and flute which made things much easier from an organisational point of view, if we let numbers run on we could have gone beyond 2,000 and classes would be uncomfortable, the logical thing to do was to put a cap on the numbers”.
Owner of The Frozen Spoon on Main St, Joe Beakey said the week was “amazing”. He stated, “It was the busiest I’ve seen, I’m eight years in Miltown and it has gone
From strength to strength, the crowds were huge. A lot of it was down to the weather but a lot of new things have been put in place in the line of traffic management and car parks. I even had people in during the week who came from Ennis and said they wouldn’t have come only for the extra parking and the extra room to park definitely brought more people in. The committee that were put together to get things moving with car space, the portaloos and barricades kept it all flowing and there was plenty room for people”.
Every day except for the clash with the All-Ireland SHC semi-final had an increase in business compared with 2025 figures for Joe. “Thursday was the busiest day in my eight years in Miltown Malbay and Saturday was my busiest ever day for ice cream. It is a huge injection, you’re not standing at the door wondering if people will come, the crowds come, you have to prepare, people queued outside my door for fifteen or twenty minutes to get in, you want to be fair and don’t want them to be in the queue for long out in the heat”.
Growth of the summer school by a four-part series which first aired on TG4 in 2022, David noted. “It looks very well, it is professionally done and it had a huge impact on it. The town has seen a huge increase in numbers, it is something that happened with people cooked up for so long and had a chance to come out after COVID, Willie Clancy is known worldwide and is an event everyone is aware of, the weather has been very good in the last few years”.
High quality tutoring is a big draw for students, Harry explained. “Students come for the quality of tuition, they are guaranteed a high standard, the general public come because they are guaranteed high quality entertainment. There’s now the longevity of the event in its 54th year, people recognise its historical standing and value, it has legendary status and people want to be part of that and the festival. There’s also the generational thing, many people started here at Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy decades ago, now their children and even their grandchildren are coming along so there is a family connection to it extending beyond generations”.
Introduction of traffic calming measures have been heralded by business owners as allowing for a smoother flow during the week. Crowds were facilitated by the barricades along the main street, Joe felt. “Outside our door is a loading bay which was freed up, we have no issues with crowds, even if the barrier was there, there was crossings, it didn’t impede on anyone’s business, there was four places to safely cross the street and they were all well marked out. I didn’t have any issues with the crowds, the traffic warden was in town every single day to make sure loading bays were kept free for deliveries and that there was plenty of room for residents”.
Crowd management was “much better than before,” Harry maintained. “We had little or no management on the streets in the environment up till now, last year the crowds were huge, we can’t quantify the general public and only accurately do our own register. This year with the erection of the barriers on either side of the street, it was a very positive move, it gave security to the pedestrians with the width of footpath and the car, it gave security to walk freely down the streets, to go to the food outlets, play music and have a drink, it enabled a free flow of traffic, there wasn’t the same number of people on the streets and they had four access points on the street which was an environmental plus and a good plus for traffic management which was done with cooperation from An Garda Síochána, Clare County Council and the local community. The twenty portaloos were an asset and the temporary car park beside SuperValu which was able to take 220 cars which meant there was 220 less cars on the street and it was a tremendous asset, that car park was provided by a local landowner Mary Cleary who we are very grateful to for her generosity and civic spirit, it was manned by a team of volunteers led by Billy O’Connell and Billy Torpey, they did a splendid job. Fr Donagh O’Meara provided parking at the presbyterian grounds, all of this was an addition and John Talty our local builder enabled parking in his premises on Ballard Rd, all this reflected a good community spirit in Miltown Malbay”.
Hillery who was part of the community group set up to try manage the festival aspect said they have received a very positive response. “When we set up, the initial idea was to look at three main things to change and improve the whole infrastructure, sanitary facilities and litter, they were three big factors we focused in on. We were lucky Mary Cleary gave us a massive field that was capable of 220 cars which would normally be on the road and it was free, it took off amazingly. The barriers on the main street didn’t allow cars to park, it gave the pedestrians more room to move up and down freely, we had a lot of young musicians on the street freed up everyone and everyone was much relaxed, the flow of traffic we had no traffic jam down the street and years gone by it was total mayhem”.
Regarding complaints on campervan parking in residential areas, David stated, “They are big vehicles and need a good bit of room to pull up, Malones takes a significant number of vehicles and other fields open for the week, most people are aware that traffic management would be in focus this year, they tailored their parking habits to accommodate the goals that we had”.
He added, “I must thank the people who came on board the committee to improve the town, without the improvements Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy would suffer eventually, hopefully there has been a hugely successful start from this. I’d like to thank Paddy Tiernan from Clare County Council and the County Council in general for the huge amount of work both financially and advise they gave us, without them it wouldn’t have been possible to put these changes in place and ensure Willie Clancy week will continue into the future and be successful for many years to come”.
