In the beginning ...
 

You're welcome friends and neighbours, come in and stay a while

The tilly lamp is lighting and the kettle is on the boil

Can you hear below the haggard the flooded river roar

Don't mind the wind and rain outside draw in and shut the door

Pull up the sugan chairs around the blazing open fire

`Tis burning well - the turf we sleaned last summer up in Lyre

And by it's side we'll sit and let the conversation flow

About the happenings of the day and the times we used to know

Then sing your songs and play your tunes beside the fireside glow

And take us back to how it was in the Ireland of long `go.
                                                                                  Joe Harrington

The voluntary/community based Irish Rambling House is a large collective of Irish Traditional Musicians, Singers, Dancers and Storytellers, ranging in age from ten to eighty four, and living in the province of Munster in Ireland from which it has drawn entertainers for a number of projects.

 

The Irish Rambling House arose out of the recordings of local talent in communities in Limerick and surrounding counties.

Beginning in 1998 these recordings were broadcast on the Joe Harrington weekly 'Rambling House' radio programme on Limerick local radio for a number of years.  Over one thousand people were recorded for the programme.

In 1999 one hundred and thirty of these formed the cast of the biggest traditional concert ever staged in Limerick, when over one thousand people packed the University Concert Hall. So successful was the concert that in 2000 Joe Harrington and Kay O'Leary were asked to open Limerick's Millennium Civic Week Festival with a similar concert.

Kay O'Leary (manager) and Joe Harrington (producer) come from Lyreacrompane, a remote rural area in the Stacks Mountains of North Kerry. They are also very active within their own communities The following is a short account of the activities of the Irish Rambling house in recent times...

Irish Rambling House Tours of Britain.  Between twenty and thirty performers take part in these tours.  There have been 11 tours since 2000 (The Cultural Relations Committee supported our first Tour of Britain and this is acknowledged in the credits on the Tour of Britain DVD). 

 Irish Rambling House Summer Shows.  These were staged during the tourist season of 2001 to 2005 in top Limerick hotels and attracted the backing of the regional tourism promotion body, Shannon Development.

 Irish Rambling House DVDs.  The Irish Rambling House has produced a number of DVDs of our tours of Britain and shows in Ireland.  We have also produced DVD's such as Songs & Scenes of Limerick, Songs & Scenes North Kerry and our latest The Rambling Irish.  See a full list of DVD's click here

Other Concerts in Ireland.  We have also held shows in various locations from time to time such as Glór Irish Music Centre, Ennis, Co Clare, Siamsa Tire, the National Folk Theatre, Trá-lí, Scartaglen Heritage Centre and the Gleneagle, Killarney.

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Irish Rambling House,  Lyreacrompane,
Co. Kerry. Ireland.

Tel: 00353 (0)6848353

e-mail ramblinghouse@eircom.net