What the 2017 Tour Includes:

• Meet at Shannon on Monday July 31
• 3 Nights in Dublin: Jury's Inn, Christchurch
• 3 Nights in Drumshambo: Lough Allen Hotel
• 3 Nights in Galway: Park Hotel
• 1 Night in Spanish Point: Bellbridge House Hotel
• Full daily Irish breakfast including day of arrival
• 4 Hotel Dinners
• Paid admissions to all touring sites
• Daily doses of harp & trad music!
  
• Transportation by deluxe motorcoach
• Driver/Guide Seamus Buckley

Highlights & Itinerary:

As with the Harpers Escape penchant for "playing by ear", we might deviate from this proposed itinerary as interesting things pop up during our time in Ireland. It's Ireland! That happens! Here is our proposed route and some of the highlights along the route. Expect plenty of harps & history, breathtaking scenery, music & memories!

2017 ITINERARY SO FAR (as of 6/21/17):
DUBLIN:
Jury's Inn, Christchurch

• Day 1: The Trinity College Harp and the Book of Kells
• Day 2: Guinness Brewery & the Guinness laser harp and the historic Downhill harp; Knowth at Newgrange (a World Heritage site). Optional evening activity: concert/session at the Cobblestone with Joseph Byrne (Pipes), Bernard Flaherty (Flute), Mossie Martin (Fiddle), Jimmy Canavan (Songs)
• Day 3: National Museum for an exclusive tour of the Antiquities collection, trip to Kells, trip to Nobber (Carolan's birthplace) and an exclusive concert at the George Eogan Cultural & Heritage Centre with Dearbhail Finnegan & Grainne Hambly
  
DRUMSHANBO:
Lough Allen Hotel

• Day 4: Ancient Hill of Tara and continuing on the Carolan trail with a trip to Granard en route to our hotel. Evening session at the hotel with special guest John Carty
• Day 5: Strokestown: Irish Famine Museum & visit to Carolan’s Grave in Ballyfarnon, County Roscommon. Keadue Harp Festival is on, ceili at night as an optional activity; Session at the hotel
• Day 6: All around Leitrim. Harp workshops at the hotel with Grainne Hambly & Billy Jackson. Views of Lough Allen. Keadue Harp Festival competitions are on during the day too. Evening concert at the hotel with Grainne & Billy and Laoise Kelly.
  GALWAY:
  Park Hotel, Eyre Square
  
• Day 7: Kylemore Abbey and the Coast Road and a trip through Connemara. Optional evening activity: session at the Crane, best traditional music center in Galway.
• Day 8: Exclusive private tour of Leap Castle in Roscrea (the most haunted castle in Ireland) and the daily dose of music with Sean Ryan
• Day 9: Galway City walking tours & shopping. Exclusive evening concert at the hotel with Kathleen Loughnane and Cormac Cannon & Breda Keville
  Spanish Point
  Bellbridge House Hotel
• Day 10: Cliffs of Moher
and O'Brien's Tower, Doolin, and ending with a goodbye session at the hotel.

music music music

We encourage the players coming on this tour to bring their fiddles, flutes, tinwhistles, concertina and other trad instruments easily gotten on a plane. Don't worry harpers! We'll be arranging to have harps waiting for us in Ireland!

Gráinne Hambly and Kathy DeAngelo & Dennis Gormley will be our resident, lead musicians.

Guest Musicians we've lined up so far: Gráinne Hambly & William Jackson (of course!), Kathleen Loughnane, Cormac Cannon & Breda Keville, Laoise Kelly, Dearbhail Finnegan, Patrick Davey, John Carty, Sean Ryan and a few surprises along the way.

For the harpers: harp workshops with Gráinne Hambly & Billy Jackson. We'll arrange for the harps. Don't worry about what playing level you're at.

Tour Pricing:

PRICE PER PERSON: $2485**
(does not include airfare*)

Rooms are double-occupancy/ single rooms available upon request at additional cost (+$495, limited quantity). All seats are first come/first serve.
Deposit of $500 holds your reservation.

Fill out the registration form below & send a check or pay via Paypal (any fees will need to be covered on a future payment).

WANT TO GET ON THE INVITATION LIST FOR 2018? Email Kathy D!

Download the sign-up form (removed this link 10/25/16)

*Passengers will make their own travel arrangements and will be given a time to meet the coach in Shannon Airport on Monday July 31.
**Price based on exchange rate on 7/15/16 and on 30 passengers traveling. Rate may change depending on exchange rate changes or fewer passengers.

Cancellations & Refunds: You may cancel your reservation and get a full refund of your deposit up to Dec. 31, 2016. You may also transfer your reservation to another person at any time. We advise purchasing travel insurance.

Tour organizers

I want you to be completely confident in how this tour will be organized and managed! Here are the folks who are involved in making the Harp Tour of Ireland the trip experience of a lifetime!

Kathy DeAngelo, Tour director

Kathy DeAngelo has been organizing the annual Harpers' Escape Weekend for 24 years. If you've been to the Escape, you know her well! The hallmark of the Escape is its cozy size, which we're carrying into this tour. She and her husband Dennis Gormley have been performing traditional music for more than 40 years. Kathy's organizational skills are legendary and she is also the director of the Somerset Folk Harp Festival, the largest harp conference in the United States. She, Dennis and Grainne Hambly are your on-site musical hosts for the tour.
Contact Kathy: email or phone 856-795-7637

Marianne MacDonald & Trad Tours

Marianne MacDonald and Trad Tours have been leading tours of Ireland and Cape Breton for 18 years. She has been actively engaged in the Irish music and dance community in the Philadelphia area and has her popular Come West Along the Road radio show on Sunday mornings. With her extensive connections to traditional Irish musicians in both the US and Ireland, besides her deep family ties in County Kerry, her tours showcase the music, history and culture of Ireland.

Contact Marianne: email or phone 856-236-2717.

Seamus Buckley & Holloway Travel

Seamus Buckley and Holloway Travel, based in Mallow, County Cork, have been coordinating with Trad Tours for five years. Seamus specializes in individually tailoring tours to meet his client interests and like Marianne, has a deep appreciation for traditional music and dance. On our trip, Seamus will drive our coach and be our guide. We leave the driving and the jokes to him!

Grainne Hambly

Gráinne Hambly is one of Ireland's leading traditional harp performers and teachers. She has been on staff at the Harpers' Escape for 15 years and now we get to hear her on her own turf in Ireland! Gráinne is our musical coordinator for the tour and besides arranging our daily dose of harp and traditional music she'll be teaching a workshop at her home in Mayo on one of the days for the harpers on the tour (while everybody else goes on a daytrip). You can expect that you'll also see her husband, noted Scottish harper, William Jackson during the tour.