The biggest annual traditional music festival draws to a close this weekend in the west Clare town of Miltown Malbay, having attracted thousands of visitors from around the world to attend the classes and enjoy the pub sessions.
The director of the school, Muiris O Rochain, said there were about 120 teachers this year, giving classes in all the Irish traditional music instruments including the uileann pipes, the fiddle and the flute. About 1,200 people enrolled for the classes, which include singing, while set dancing has become an important part of the school.
The nearby villages of Quilty and Spanish Point have also been pressed into play, as community halls, schools, golf clubs and 35 private house were given over as class venues. Daily ceilithe, seminars and lectures, including a course given by the new head of RTE television, Cathal Goan, complete the formal side of the summer school. "All the top musicians are here. They are involved in the school. The service they give to the school is second to none," Mr O Rochain said.
For many musicians, the school is an opportunity for playing and listening. Even on the sunny days, the dark pub interiors are humming to the medley of the mixed instruments that make up the session.
"It is big in the sense that we have music ongoing from whenever they open until late at night. There are thousands of musicians here who might only be involved peripherally in the school or might not be involved at all," Mr O Rochain said.
Among this week's visitors were Gaelic singers from the Hebrides, musicians from Egypt, Brazil and India and a Japanese TV crew. The Willie Clancy school began in 1973, the year of the death of the renowned piper, who is commemorated by a concert tonight.
"It grew itself, a natural sort of growth. We were always careful about that. It is at a point now where it is capacity full really," said Mr O Rochain.
On the streets there is a carnival atmosphere, and hawkers sell everything from bodhrans to mobile phone cases.
Crepes, meanwhile, seem to have taken over from burgers and chips. At one of three crepe stands, Sarah Quinlan said the afternoon trade was quiet but picked up in the early hours.
One backpacker attempted to solve his accommodation crisis by suggesting he sleep in the "gangway" of an elderly woman's house. But most people have relied on B&Bs, forgoing tents out of bitter experience.
There are no pub extensions, officially at least, but Miltown Malbay was at least able to celebrate the new extended opening hours in style.
One musician who has attended the school since the mid-1980s is Garry Shannon, from Ruan, Co Clare, who teaches at St Flannan 's College, Ennis. A flute player, he is a member of the 91-year-old Kilfenora Ceili Band, on which he wrote a thesis as part of his MA in traditional Irish music performance at the University of Limerick.
The "Willie Clancy" week has also become an opportunity to launch books and CDs. Mr Shannon brought out his second CD, Loozin' Air, this week. "It is the prime festival really for the musicians rather than for the punter. It is where they swap tunes and gossip," he said.
The Kilfenora Ceili Band, which played during the week and is giving another performance tonight, now has its third generation of members. Formed in 1909 to raise funds for the refurbishment of the church in the north Clare village, it started out having a wide spectrum of ages among the players, from teenagers to old men. "It was a measurement of traditional music passing from an older generation to a younger one," Mr Shannon said.
The band survived the 1920s when there were few venues to play in, and its output was first broadcast on radio in the 1930s. The Dance Hall Act of 1935 finally led to the creation of dance halls, and the band prospered until the 1970s, when amplifiers, pop music and the creation of smaller venue lounge bars took their toll.
"In the late 1980s there was a massive revival in set dancing. It was a fad,like line dancing was, but set dancing was far more enduring and is still going from strength to strength."
Meanwhile, a proposal to write a book about the Willie Clancy school has been made by Tony Kearns, a film editor, and Barry Taylor, a freelance writer on traditional music. People interested in its progress should leave details with Tony Kearns, Killegar, Enniskerry, Co Wicklow. The e-mail address is: tckearns@indigo.ie