When many of us were younger the idea of summer school connoted tedious extra days inside a schoolroom making up work that was less than satisfactory during the regular academic year.

In the context of Irish traditional music and dance summer schools, that connotation couldn't be more opposite as potential students young and old for prepare to attend one of the weeks in Ireland and around the U.S.

In the U.S. all of them would have in common a very qualified teaching staff who can take those students to higher proficiency levels through structured classes.

To help distinguish itself from the rest of the American camps and very much following on the Willie Clancy Summer School mode, the Catskills Irish Arts Week (CIAW) has added on a series of daily lectures and added some extra buzz to the nightlife with CD launch nights in local roadhouses. Both of those initiatives allow enhanced opportunities for the teaching staff to show off outside the classroom that extra knowledge they may have gleaned in academia or while compiling material for a new recording.

And in providing this added value to the week's programming in East Durham, it also adds to the trad IQ of those who flock to the Irish resort whether they sign up for classes or just hang around the town for the craic.

Among the highlights for 2008 are the following:

Dr. Mick Moloney of New York University, who established the very first Irish music summer school at the Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins, West Virginia, 27 years ago and served as the Irish Week director for 25 years until turning the reins over to Joanie Madden, makes his first foray to the Catskills Irish Arts Week as a special guest lecturer.

While in East Durham he will deliver lectures on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons in the customary lecture timeframe of 4-5:30 p.m. On Monday, he will share his expertise on the Irish American musical theater musical history of the 19th Century so successfully explored in his McNally's Row of Flats CD.

On Wednesday, he will expound on the history of the banjo in Irish music in a lecture that will grow more animated with the presence of CIAW staff banjoists Darren Maloney, Pio Ryan, Frankie McCormick and Don Meade in a reprise of the "Banjaxed" concert organized by Blarney Star Productions and NYU back in 2006.

On Friday, one of Moloney's foremost legacies in the U.S., the Green Fields of America performing troupe, will celebrate in its 30th year of bringing traditional music to all corners of the U.S. featuring many performers from the CIAW staff who took to the stage under that banner over the years.

Another noted academic, Dr. Gearoid O'Allmhurain, of the University of Missouri/St. Louis, also helps things get off with a Monday lecture based on his research on Clare concertina master Paddy Murphy that resulted in a CD, In Good Hands, late last year he produced along with Peadar O'Loughlin, which will serve as a CD launch also.

On Tuesday afternoon, a Joe O'Donovan commemorative lecture will be coordinated by the dancing protégé of the late Joe O'Donovan, Patrick O'Dea, leading a panel of folks who knew and worked with Cork dancing master who died on April 30. That panel would include Timmy "the Brit" McCarthy (another Cork dancing master), Dr. Matt Cranitch, Kieran Jordan, Donny Golden and myself on Joe's U.S. influence.

Alternatively, fiddler Oisin MacDiarmada doing advanced research at the Dundalk Institute of Technology is studying the impact of music on "Parading in an Irish Context," which is his topic for a second Tuesday lecture.

One of the underlying aspects of the CIAW is its focal point on the Irish musicians in New York who have played a historic role and perhaps, no man has seen as much or has been as involved for so many decades as the Bronx native Felix Dolan.

His son Brendan is working towards a doctorate at NYU, and one of his research projects has been on his dad, so he will share that with a lecture audience on Wednesday and give greater insight into why he is considered one of the most important and popular men in New York Irish music history.

On Thursday afternoon, the marvelous story of Boston box player Joe Derrane will be told by Irish music journalist and professor Earle Hitchner as only he can tell it since he played a seminal role in launching the "second coming" of the legendary accordion player.

Still unscheduled are some master accordion classes with visiting guests Mick Mulcahy (father and mentor of CIAW teachers Louise and Michelle who also performs with them as the Mulcahy Family) that will take place in the late afternoon time frame and also James Keane.

While there are many evening sessions to choose from around the locality, some will also carry the additional duty of serving as the official launch night of new recordings from the 2008 staff. There are quite a few offerings this year, but the venues have not been confirmed nor have the scheduled days been decided yet.

Coming over from Co. Roscommon to the CIAW for the first time are flute player John Wynne and fiddler John McEvoy, whose Pride of the West CD was released late last summer on the Clo Iar-Chonnachta label. Joining them are Catherine McEvoy, whose new recording The Home Ruler is just coming out as well on the CIC label as she is back for her third year as an instructor.

CIC is positioning itself as a record company of choice for more and more trad musicians, as Brian Conway's new CD Consider the Source is also slated to be unveiled in July and given a special launch up in East Durham towards the end of the week when Conway joins the assembled staff to participate in the closing Andy McGann Festival.

Tony DeMarco's The Sligo Indian will also receive the special launch treatment during the week as the Brooklyn born fiddler returns once again as a teacher. Daithi Sproule's new CD The Crow in the Sun will be feted along with the new self-titled Fingal CD featuring Sproule with his Fingal partners Randal Bays and James Keane serving as the East Coast launch for the stylish trad trio.

Young Clare box player Damien Connolly will also have his new accordion tutor My Irish Accordion Tutor Vol I B/C Accordion, Reels, Jigs, Polkas, ready for the Catskills. Kathy Ludlow of the CIAW children's program staff will have an afternoon soiree for Big Ship Sails CD with children's songs produced with Mary Coogan as well.

Followers of this column know that something special is always in the works for the Thursday night ceili at the Shamrock House in the heart of East Durham. With the expected arrival of Billy McComiskey's long-awaited second solo CD Out of the Box on the Compass label, you can expect that many fans of America's most famous accordion player will be on hand to help mark the occasion. That its content and much of Billy's personal history has a strong Catskills story interwoven in it will make it one of the premier nights of the whole week.

All in all it looks like another exciting week with lots of great music and information to share for all those who make their way to the old Irish resort area of East Durham.

Catskills Irish Arts Week takes place from July 13-19 with the Andy McGann Traditional Music and Dance Festival closing out the week on Saturday, July 19. For more information and schedules keep your eye on the www.east-durham.org website, or call 518-634-2286, or email [email protected].

(In full disclosure, this columnist is the artistic director of the Catskills Irish Arts Week).