ABBEYFEALE, CO. LIMERICK - The May Bank Holiday weekend in Ireland had glorious summer weather all over Ireland, and according to an ad from Bord Failte, I could have gone in 10 directions to kick off the Irish festival season and get my fill of traditional music, song or dance.

But the Fleadh by the Feale in the West Limerick border town of Abbeyfeale became my destination of choice based on raves from a Pearl River family who hailed from Moyvane, just over the Kerry border.

Increasingly in recent years, I am becoming more aware of the musical and cultural allure of the West Limerick region which has been overshadowed by the more dominant counties of Clare, Kerry and Cork, the latter two sharing the musical heritage of the lively Sliabh Luachra polkas and slides with the western edge of Limerick County.

Though the summer sun was blazing outside, I set off for the famous house for music near the town's crossroads and square where later on a "bones competition would be a focal point.

Murphy's Pub was established decades ago by Dan and Maureen Murphy, and traditional music and musicians were welcomed into the establishment down through the years. Dan is an accordion player who met and married the Mrs. in Birmingham, where she was teaching Irish step dancing.

They moved back to Abbeyfeale to live in 1975 and now their son, Kevin, who also plays the bouzouki, runs the pub while they sit back and enjoy the craic.

Maureen also plays an active role in running the annual Bank Holiday Festival, especially at the gig rig in the square where the bones competition was held. In between she can be found as the primary cheerleader for the in-house sessions where on the Monday, an outstanding one began in mid-afternoon.

Alongside her sat her son Donal Murphy, whom many of our readers known from his work (or is it play?) with Sliabh Notes with Matt Cranitch and Tommy O'Sullivan and also Four Men and a Dog, and daughter Eilish who played the flute, and granddaughter Melanie (Donal's daughter) who played the fiddle while grandma beamed.

Sandwiched between Donal and another great box-player Derek Hickey was local fiddler Diarmuid O'Brien. The legendary Steve Cooney accompanied them in a session kept percolating all afternoon well into the evening hours because, as Mrs. Murphy said, "they're taking drink so they are here for the kill."

Fiddler O'Brien from nearby Glin is related to the late Martin Mulvihill and his son Brendan, and also a cousin to Margie Mulvihill, the flute player who tipped me off to this wonderful part of the world.

A couple of years ago, he recorded a CD, Cairde Cairdin, (www.diarmuidobrien.com) which features many of the marvelous box players in the locality, so he was well able to hang with Murphy and Hickey this day as they played one gorgeous set of tunes after another where the boxes not only sang in harmony but danced to a lovely tempo.

Today's Ireland requires you to pace the pint consumption, so grabbing a bit of fresh air while the sun still shone gloriously on the Abbeyfeale streets allowed me to have a sup of tea with another box player, Mick Mulcahy, originally from Brosna, Co. Kerry who now lived in the town.

Then I met Con Herbert -- you guessed it, another box player -- for a meal at Leens Hotel centered in the town diagonally across from the square and then we went back to Murphys for the last hurrah and my last pint of the black stuff this trip.

Another Mulcahy, Pat (Mick's brother who shared All-Ireland status with him in the Brosna Ceili Band of yesteryear) with the Allow Ceili Band had summoned a "shape-up" ceili band to have a few tunes mustering 13 musicians to close out the holiday weekend.

I noted three more accordions in the frenzied session scrum, and I asked Pat if there was any limit on the number of accordion players who could sit in. Without skipping a beat he said, "We could do with a few more."

And you know, with the music that I heard in one magic 24-hour spell in Abbeyfeale featuring some exceptional box playing, he was right. The tradition has been holding here as strongly as the other hotbeds around Ireland, even if most of us aren't as aware of it as we should be.

It is simply another case of the unfamiliar road in Ireland leading to pleasant surprises that last a lifetime if you allow yourself to take it.