TULLA, Co. Clare - The sun was declining west of the Tulla town square where the gig rig was erected for the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann in that East Clare bastion of traditional music and dance. CCE Director General Senator Labhras O'Murchu led a group of CCE officials in reviewing the welcoming parade led by the Tulla Pipe Band. Ever articulate, he set the weekend tone in his opening remarks.

"I can't think of a greater moment than the celebration of our own musical tradition which doesn't belong in isolation, but rather it belongs to us as a people and a nation and as a community," he said.

"Tulla is celebrating 50 years of volunteering in our national service and we all know the challenges over 50 years, but they realized that the music was important if only in keeping faith with our ancestors."

As the weekend of September 14-16 unfolded it was clear to this first time visitor to Tulla that a great unbroken thread was properly lionized with the right mix of ceremony and craic in the East Clare village.

The late summer weather was ideal for an opening outdoor ceremony and display of musical talent and dancing, but the weekend was properly christened later on with a live Ceili House taping (to be aired November 17 at www.rte.ie/radio1/ceilihouse) and also a ceili mor with the legendary Tulla Ceili Band who recently marked their own 60th anniversary as a performing unit.

Martin Hayes, the son of founding member P. Joe Hayes from nearby Maghera, was home for the weekend joining bandmates Mark Donnellan, Sean Donnelly, Jennifer Lenihan, J.J. Conway, Michael (Mackie) McKee, Jim Corry and Mick Flanagan on both the radio program and the ensuing ceili in St. Joseph's Secondary School at the edge of the small village.

Ceili House compere Kieran Hanrahan, a native of Ennis, pointed out that there were ten All-Ireland champions on hand for the show, with fiddlers Martin Hayes, Seamus Connolly, Paddy Canny, Vincent Griffin, Michael O'Rourke and the latest and youngest Sorchadha Costello, who won the under-12 top medal in Tullamore in August demonstrating the prominence of the fiddle in these parts.

She joined her mother Mary McNamara on the concertina for some reels (Cavan and Colemans). The esteemed Paddy Canny, still playing well at 88, was joined by his daughter Mary and granddaughter Eimear Coughlan on fiddles, and his grandson Gerard on harp for tunes that included "The Humors of Scariff."

Vincent Griffin, 75, another outstanding fiddler who was a founding member of CCE Comhaltas and its current chairman played with great panache also.

The Saturday workshops brought in national talent like Catherine McEvoy McGorman and her family, who were involved in sessions and concerts, as were Michael Rooney and June McCormack and Michael's harp teacher Janet Harbison, now located in Limerick, Maire Ni Cheallachoir from Cork for sean nos singing, and a young teenage wunderkind Darach MacMathuna from the Meath Gaelthacht who taught sean nos dancing and danced all weekend when he wasn't playing the box.

They bolstered the Tulla stalwarts like Andrew MacNamara, Helen Hayes, Seamus Bulger and Sister Eibhlin Ni Challanain, who along with Meati Joe Sheamais of Radio na Gaelachta launched a CCE Irish language series.

The centerpiece of Saturday's events was the archive presentation in a gallery format of photos and stories displayed all weekend and also featured in the commemorative journal "The Humors of Tulla."

Clare FM's Pat Costelloe also prepared and audio-visual version that lasted two hours with some historic footage. Much of this material will eventually make its way into the new archives at the remodeled Cois na hAbhna Resource Center in Ennis and perhaps online through the CCE Archives at the Dublin Culturlann.

An outstanding concert was organized and presented by Mary McNamara for that evening in St. Peter and Paul's Church with over 50 performers that lasted three and half hours.

The parish priest Father O'Reilly remarked to me afterwards, "If the music in heaven is anything like we heard tonight, it will surely be wonderful to be there" as he was glad to make the church available for such an august occasion.

That euphoria carried over to the Sunday Aifreann tri Gaelige (Mass in Irish) when the church was packed again and led to comments like "Do you enjoy that?" making one forget for the moment the more dispirited status of the Catholic Church in Ireland these days.

You might say that Saturday's highest compliment was paid by the cross county ceili band rivals, the Kilfenora Ceili Band who played for the Saturday night ceili to salute their Tulla cohorts.

Sunday saw a number of very good sessions in the five pubs in the town including one very enjoyable afternoon sing-song led by Robbie McMahon of Spancihill fame (no, that is one song that I didn't hear all day).

McMahon deftly worked the room and coaxed songs out of some 20 singers in an old fashioned demonstration of how the Irish know how to entertain themselves and pass the time in merriment and melancholy that even carried into the opening minutes of the Kerry-Cork All-Ireland football final.

The fiddlers took center stage at the Town Hall on late Sunday afternoon after the match presented by Chairman Griffin, who called on the visiting artists from the U.S. Martin Hayes and Seamus Connolly, who were delighted to be on hand all weekend, Michael O'Rourke (a former student of the late Maureen Glynn Connolly when she moved to Ennis), Manus McGuire (a Sligo blow-in who has lived in Scariff for years) and the Tulla Junior Ceili Band.

Hayes, who has traveled and played all over the world, put the cap on it when he said it was still a great honor to play in Tulla itself where "winning the All-Ireland wouldn't normally get you much notice around here since there are so many great players here."

Griffin, who was the emcee, finished up the concert, and before lashing into a selection of hero Michael Coleman's reels played the slow air "Ashokan Farewell" written by Jay Ungar in 1982 in America.

The emotive tune made famous by the Ken Burns Civil War series tugs the heart strings whether you hear it in the Catskills or Tulla. In the hands of skilled musicians like those on display all weekend, it isn't hard to understand the universal appeal of the music that still warms the households and pubs around Tulla and County Clare.

Congratulations to Chair Breda McNamara and her hard-working and imaginative committee for an excellent program. I will cherish the memories of my first visit to Tulla and be sure that it won't be my last.