SCOIL SHÉAMUIS ENNIS

Scoil Shéamuis Ennis operates all year round organising classes and the annual Return to Fingal festival in memory of the great musician, music collector and broadcaster Séamus Ennis.

The classes are held in the Séamus Ennis Cultural Centre, Naul, Co. Dublin. The Séamus Ennis Cultural Centre is also the main venue for the Return to Fingal Festival which takes place annually over the October Bank Holiday weekend. Flute, tin whistle, fiddle, uilleann pipes, accordian, guitar and Irish language conversation classes are taught by local tutors and run from September until May.

The Return to Fingal festival takes place annually over the October Bank Holiday weekend with workshops, céilí's, recitals, sessions and a comprehensive schools' outreach programme. Musicians from around Ireland take part in events in Naul, Oldtown and Ballyboughal. The educational dimension to the programme is central to the festival with masterclasses given over the course of the weekend and with musicians and theatre groups visiting up to thirty schools in the locality as part of the festival's schools' programme.

Scoil Shéamuis Ennis could not exist as it does today without the support it receives from Fingal County Council and Fingal Arts Office, who have been the Scoil's main sponsors and development partners over the past 17 years. Scoil Shéamuis Ennis also receives sponsorship from the Séamus Ennis Cultural Centre, the Arts Council, Meath County Coucil and McKeown Construction.

BACKGROUND

During the summer of 1988, a group of local people in Naul, Co. Dublin organised a festival to commemorate the life and music of the great Irish piper, musician and music collector Séamus Ennis.

Séamus Ennis had family connections in Naul and it was here that he had lived out the final years of his life. Following on from the success of this festival, Seán Mac Philibín and Ger Griffin decided to organise an annual festival which became known as Scoil Shéamuis Ennis. The first festival was held over the October bank holiday weekend in 1993 and was a great success.

The Scoil Shéamuis Ennis festival has gone from strength to strength since 1993 and has been endorsed by the Ennis family who have become regulars at the annual festival.

In 2001, Seán Mac Philibín, in partnership with Fingal County Council and Fingal Arts Council opened the Séamus Ennis Cultural Centre in Naul. This meant that for the first time the 'Scoil' had a permanent venue. Since the opening of the Séamus Ennis Cultural Centre in 2001 Scoil Shéamuis Ennis has become more than just an annual weekend festival. It now provides year round classes for tin whistle, fiddle, flute, uilleann pipes, accordian, guitar and Irish conversation. In 2005, Scoil Shéamuis Ennis relaunched the October bank holiday weekend festival. The new festival will be known as 'The Return to Fingal' and will become part of the ever expanding Scoil Shéamuis Ennis.