# Scoil Ghemhridh 2025

Scoil Ghemhridh is an Irish music festival that is held in Gweedore, County Donegal every December. There is live music and workshops given by very talented musicians. Every pub you go into that week will have live music or a seisiún going on. Scoil Ghemhridh is Irish for 'Winter School' and the classes cover every traditional instrument you can think of - banjo, bodhrán, fiddle, concertina, guitar, uilleann pipes, singing and, of course, harp. Musicians Moya Brennan of Clannad and Mairead Mooney of Altan are big supporters of the festival. Mairead also took the singing classes this year.

After Christmas, my family and I stayed in Gweedore for New Year. The photo above is of beautiful Errigal mountain which is found in the area. My family and I have hiked up to the top a couple of times and the view from the summit is absolutely amazing. This photo, however, was taken in the summer - Errigal was definitely a lot colder when we were there this time.

This year the festival ran from 27th - 31st December. I signed up for the harp classes and didn't know what to expect. I didn't know if the classes would be too advanced or too easy or how many other harpers were going to be in the class. When I turned up on the first day, I found that there were a lot of people attending the school and many classes were full up. For example the fiddle was so popular that extra classes had to be organised.

Harp wasn't as popular as fiddle and I found myself in a class with 6 other harpers, which was a nice size. Our teacher was Aisling Lyons. Aisling is from County Clare and is a fantastic harper. She can be found on Spotify and her playing is absolutely beautiful.

We learned a jig which was a fast, tricky piece. We also learned Cremonea, a piece written by Turlough O'Carolan. O'Carolan was a blind Irish harper who lived from 1670-1738. This is such a beautiful melody and to think it was written so many years ago... Aisling has this on her Aistear recording and I listen to it a lot.

The school was great fun. On the final day, there was a concert where each class played a song. The harpers played Cremonea and I think it went down well with the audience.

I really enjoyed the experience and hope to return to Scoil Ghemhridh next year.

Another highlight of the trip was visiting Leo's Tavern on New Year's Eve. We visit Leo's all the time as it is our local pub/ restaurant. However, this time I brought my harp with me and I asked if I could play. Leo's Tavern is the home of Clannad and Enya. It is one of the most important places in traditional Irish music. Lots of great musicians have played at Leo's - for example, Bono, Phil Coulter and many more.

I really enjoyed playing my harp there. I played Cremonea and also Eleanor Plunkett, another song by O'Carolan which was made famous by Clannad, and lots of other pieces too,