Accommodation at Féile Átha Dá Chab 2009

There are a few accommodation options for visitors to Ballydehob, County Cork, Ireland, for Féile Átha Dá Chab, Ballydehob Traditional Music, Song and Dance Festival on April 17-19, 2009. These include bed and breakfasts, self-catering holiday homes, and hotels. Ballydehob is also only around 4 miles from Schull, 9 miles from Skibbereen, and 11 miles from Bantry, so staying in any of those places is also an option.
Here is some information to get you started on finding someplace to stay. A quick search of the Internet should also throw up a few more, should the following suggestions be full. Remember to drop the 0 if ringing from outside Ireland. The international code for Ireland is +353

Accommodation in the village of Ballydehob

Lynwood B&B, Schull Road, Ballydehob. (in the village) Phone 028 37124

The Old Crossing B&B, Phone 028 37148

Rose Hill B&B, phone 028 37188

Accommodation near Ballydehob

An Carraig Ard B&B, Ardura Mór, Ballydehob. (around one and a half miles from the village with sea views) Phone 028 37000

Coolbawn Lodge Farmhouse B&B, Caheragh, Skibbereen. (around 6 miles from village of Ballydehob). Phone 028 38166

Bayview B&B, Aughadown, Skibbereen. Around 5 miles from Ballydehob with sea views.
Phone 028 38276

Coolbawn Lodge Self-Catering Holiday Home, Caheragh, Skibbereen. Phone 028 38166

Sweetnam's Holiday Home, Corravoley, Ballydehob (3 miles from Ballydehob with sea views) Phone 028 38269

Caverly's Cottage, Kilcoe, Aughadown, Skibbereen. (around 4 and a half miles from Ballydehob) Phone 028 38176. Two cottages right on the shoreline. One unit sleeps 5, the other 4.

Holiday home between Schull and Ballydehob (around 3 miles from Ballydehob). Ring Kathleen on 086 1233646

Accommodation in Bantry

The Maritime Hotel in Bantry (11 miles from Ballydehob) is offering a special rate of €55 pps (full Irish breakfast included) for visitors to Féile Átha Dá Chab 2009. To avail of this rate, please phone the hotel directly on 027 54700 and quote Ballydehob festival.


You can also get accommodation information from Skibbereen Tourist Office by ringing 028 21766
Hope this information will be of use and look forward to seeing ye in Ballydehob for Féile Átha Dá Chab!

Our Darling Girl From Clare.....Edel Fox on Concertina at Féile Átha Dá Chab 2008

After several enquiries last year as to why we had no concertina workshop, we have gone all out and secured Edel Fox, one of Ireland's best-known and admired concertina players, to give a workshop at Féile Átha Dá Chab, Ballydehob Traditional Music, Song and Dance Festival 2008. Most people will probably be familiar with Edel as the winner of the TG4 Young Musician of the Year Award in 2004. Hailing from Miltown Malbay, County Clare, she is now one of the most accomplished Irish musicians of her generation. A prized pupil of Noel Hill, Edel made her radio debut on Clare FM's 'Mist - Covered Mountain' at the tender age of seven. She plays music evocative of her native West Clare, with a joy and abandon that lifts the spirit. Despite her young age, her musical resume boasts a list of accolades. In addition to her TG4 Young Musician of the Year award, she is a regular performer on Irish radio and the BBC and has performed in festivals and concert halls from North America to as far away as Asia. As well as being an engaging performer, Edel is also an insightful and patient teacher, specializing in the repertoire of her native soil. She teaches concertina at the prestigious Willie Clancy Summer School in her home town of Miltown Malbay and also teaches annually at festivals in the U.S., including the Irish Arts Week Festival in East Durham, NY. In 2006, Edel and fiddle player, Ronan O'Flaherty, released a great album together, simply called Edel Fox & Ronan O'Flaherty. Edel Fox is currently a student of music at the University of Limerick.
It will be brilliant for people learning the concertina in Ballydehob and further afield in West Cork to have the chance to attend a workshop with Edel at Féile Átha Da Chab 2008. Places are limited to ten in this workshop, so to avoid disappointment, put your name down for it as soon as you can. It is only October 2007 now and one place is already booked! Edel will also perform at the concert during the festival. Bígí Linn!

Buaiteoir na duaise, TG4 Ceoltóir Óg na Bliana, i 2004, is seinnteoir óg consairtín í Edel Fox a bhfuil raon duaiseanna agus gradaim buaite aici. Ó Shráid na Cathrach, Contae an Chláir ó dhúchas, is í duine dos na ceoltóirí traidisiúnta níos oilte dena glúin. Chomh maith le bheith ina seinnteoir tarraingteach, is múinteoir í a thaispeáineann léargas agus foighne ina cuid múinteoireachta. Múineann sí ag an Scoil Samhraidh mór le rá ‘Willie Clancy’ agus ag féiltí sna Stáit Aontaithe, Féile Seachtaine Ealaíne Ghaelach in East Durham, Nua Eabhrach ina measc.

Legendary Box Player Bobby Gardiner at Féile Átha Dá Chab 2008

It will be a great honour for Féile Átha Dá Chab, Ballydehob Traditional Music, Song and Dance Festival 2008 to welcome button accordion and melodeon player, Bobby Gardiner, to Ballydehob for the second year of the festival. This will be a fabulous chance for budding players of these two instruments to listen to and learn from Bobby's playing, both in his workshop and at his performance at the concert over the weekend.

A native of the beautiful Burren area of Aughdarra, Lisdoonvarna, Co. Clare, Bobby began his musical career at the age of eight, on an old German concertina, which was the instrument also played by his mother. Stuck pallets would sometimes result in emergency surgery when a goose's quill would substitute for a broken spring or a sticking plaster would repair an air leak. This experience led him to try the two-row button accordion. Most musicians then were self-taught and learned tunes from family, local musicians or by ear from the old 78 gramophone records of Michael Coleman, melodeon player P.J. Conlon and many others. Bobby's brother Mick and uncle Mick also played the meolodeon and accordion and his uncle Tom had a store of fiddle tunes.
After competing successfully in the under 15s at the Fleadh Ceoil in Dungarvan, he was asked to join the Kilfenora Céilí Band. He subsequently joined Malachy Sweeney's Céilí Band from Armagh and traveled the length and breadth of Ireland as a professional musician for five pounds a week!

In 1960, Bobby Gardiner emigrated to the U.S. and it was there that he made "Memories of Clare", his first L.P. of accordion music with Copley Records. This album has remained the best-loved of Bobby's many recordings ever since. In recent times, Bobby recorded a melodeon and lilting CD called "The Clare Shout".
Bobby was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1963 and stationed at Fort Dix in New Jersey. On his weekends off, he would visit the Catskill Mountains in New York, which were a Mecca for traditional Irish music in those days. It was here in the Catskills that he met musicians such as Joe Cooley, Andy McGann and many other great players.
In 1970, Bobby returned to Ireland and within a few years was teaching the accordion in Tipperary, Waterford and Limerick. He has now been tutoring at University College Cork for 25 years. Bobby has also traveled extensively with Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann on their numerous trips abroad and is a resident musician every summer with the Bru Boru group from Cashel, Co. Tipperary. He is currently focusing on his own playing.

Ó Lios Dúin Bhearna, Chontae an Chláir ó dhúchas, tá dea-chlú sa cheol gaelach bainte amach ag Bobby Gardiner le linn a ghairm fada. Sheinn sé an consairtín mar pháiste ach níorbh fhada gur bhog sé ar aghaidh go dtí an mileoidean agus níos déanaí arís go dtí an bosca ceoil dá-rangach. Tá réimse leathan de thaifeadadh déanta ag Bobby, ina measc tá ‘Memories of Clare’, a chéad ceirnín ar a bhfuil an-cháil, agus ceirnín a taifeadadh le déanaí, ‘The Clare Shout’, le ceol mileoidin agus portaireacht air. Le han-éileamh air mar mhúinteoir, tá Bobby Gardiner anois ina chónaí i gContae Thiobraid Árainn agus é ag múineadh i gColáiste na hOllscoile Corcaigh le 25 bliain anuas.