Tony Kearns - About

May 2008

Tony has been busy working on his book of photographs from the Willie Clancy Summer School taken from 1992 to 2007 which has been generously supported by the Arts Council. The book will be published in October/November this year and Tony will be posting updates as to its progress regularly. Tony was down in Spanish Point in April taking photos at the Johnny Doran Piping Tionól which celebrated the 100th anniversary of the great piper's birth. He has also attended the recent Skerries Traditional Music Weekend, taking photos of the classes, concert and sessions that were organised there. A selection of images from these events will be added to the site soon.

The majority of Tony's photographs have been taken at Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy (Willie Clancy Summer School) as part of an ongoing documentary project of the activities of the School. The Irish Traditional Music Archive in Dublin has amassed a collection of Tony's photographs as one of their special collections with a tally of approximately 700 images.

The images on this website are also available for sale as digital prints of extremely high quality and archival standard on A4 paper at €20/£15/US$30 per print, including post & packaging. A discount of 10% will apply for orders of three prints and more. Please e mail for prices of A3 prints. Print sales will help defray the high expense incurred by the project. Payment by cheque, money order or Paypal accepted. Please contact tony@tonykearns.net for further details.

Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy is an annual, weeklong, Summer School of Irish traditional music, song and dance which has been held in the West Clare town of Miltown Malbay each July since 1973. It is held in honour of the great Clare piper Willie Clancy, a native of Miltown Malbay, and the School consists of classes in various instruments, set dancing classes, piping workshops, solo recitals, seminars, lectures, evening céilís and a grand concert at the end of the week featuring the best of Irish traditIonal music, dance and song that can be experienced anywhere.

Tony has had calendars and postcards published of his work over the years and has held exhibitions during the School for the past number of years.

A book about the Summer School, A Touchstone For The Tradition, was published by Brandon Press in late May 2003 featuring text by Barry Taylor and Tony's photographs. It is available from bookshops (order from your local bookseller!) and via the internet on Amazon.