IT would be so easy to write a story about the bygone days and era of the Catskill Mountains and, in particular, the tiny hamlet of East Durham which is the heart of the Irish Catskills. The latest setback is the loss of one of the more popular resorts, the historic Fern Cliff House over the winter, when it was sold to a group that saw potential in it for a summer camp for Jewish youth.

While it is a crushing blow, there is still a resiliency that seems to permeate the region when July rolls around and the annual Catskills Irish Arts Week (July 15-21) is about to encamp in rustic community just 2 1/2 hours north of New York City and less than an hour south of Albany, New York's capital.

Spirits lift, supplies stocked and rooms are readied in the remaining hostelries for what is easily their best week of the year economically and socially when hundreds of people make their way again to the eastern Catskill Mountain range running majestically alongside the New York State Thruway.

Now in its 13th year, the cultural cavalcade known simply as "arts week" to the locals and visitors continues to counter the otherwise prevailing trend away from the mountain resort area that lured so many Irish families going back to the better part of the 20th century.

If the commercial climate in terms of CD sales and live music clubs for traditional music remains in a steady decline, it seems to fly in the face of the increasing number of festivals in Ireland devoted to trad music and the success of the ones over here, particularly those that have summer school components to them like the Catskills, Augusta Heritage Center, Swannanoa Gathering and the Milwaukee Irish Fest.

Maybe it's the "interactive" component of being able to see and hear our popular Irish musicians and then rub shoulders easily with them amidst the summer air in a variety of social settings which are most conducive to propagating the music and dance. Who said summer school isn't fun?

Since I have been involved in the Catskills Irish Arts Week since its inception in 1995 -- I currently serve as its artistic director - I know that it succeeds because it is a unique place to hold an Irish cultural event, simply because it really is an Irish village surrounded by lush green hills that still serves as necessary escape from our everyday lives of hustle and bustle.

But that alone would not explain why 1,500 people would make their way from 30 U.S. states, six Canadian provinces and from as far away as New Zealand and Japan last year to soak up the arts week atmosphere.

To appeal to that "nomadic community" of diehard trad music students, fans and even teacher/performers, you have to have an attractive program that makes them circle that calendar every July once they know the dates of the CIAW. This year it shifted from its customary second week in July to yield to the mighty Willie Clancy Summer School in Clare upon which it is modeled, which is on next week.

The CIAW has managed to grow every year because its word of mouth reputation on both sides of the Atlantic, and certainly not from any slick graphically marketed campaign. People immersed in the scene recognize the quality of the teaching staff who will lead the classes and music sessions as well as perform at the evening concerts and dances.

They reflect the crossroads of Ireland, New York and the rest of the country, coalescing in a community in summer school numbers like no other place this side of the pond.

Like Willie Week and the Ennis Trad Festival, the week is sprinkled with CD launches which this year will include new efforts by the late singer Frank Harte, who completed work on it literally just before he passed away in 2005, piper Brian McNamara and concertinist Timmy Collins, piper Elliot Grasso, singer Tim Dennehy, Chulrua with Patrick Ourceau and Pat Egan and the featured CD of the week, The Tribute to Andy McGann by Brian Conway, Joe Burke and Felix Dolan.

Also, lectures and master classes serve as an attraction, and there will be at least two helpings per day to satisfy the curiously hungry.

Harry Bradshaw, the RTE veteran producer and researcher will offer talks on Chief Francis O'Neill, Michael Coleman and Professor James Morrison, Dr. Matt Cranitch will visit Sliabh Luachra Music with a live special guest, 80-year-old Paddy Cronin.

Fulbright scholar Tim Collins will shed light on the Galway connection in New York City, James Keane on a life in the Irish music scene called Living in the Tradition and Gearoid O'hAllmhurain will regale us with a history of the ceili band tradition, with many fine exponents on hand for the week.

There will be master classes with Julee Glaub and Mark Weems on the influence of Appalachian music, as well as a return engagement with the marvel of North Clare, the 83-year-old Chris Droney from Bellharbour, and also a tune workshop with Mick Mulcahy, who is the musical mentor and scion for his talented daughters Louise and Michelle.

Shoehorned in there will also be a screening of From Shore to Shore: Irish Traditional Music in New York City, which will serve as a visual guide to the rich treasure trove of Irish music that led to the creation of such a vibrant week in the Catskills.

While the daily classes aren't for the uninitiated, the multiple sessions surrounding the early evening concerts (7:30-9:30 p.m.) on the excellent Quill festival grounds and ceilithe (9 p.m.-midnight) are open to the public and offer an easy and entertaining way to view the diverse talent on hand.

Leading the fiddle section are Brian Conway and his sister Rose Flanagan, Matt Cranitch, Martin Hayes, the Kane Sisters, Willie Kelly, Tony Demarco, Randal Bays, Patrick Ourceau and Chicagoans John Daly and Sean Cleland.

Flute fanatics can feast on Mike Rafferty, Mike McHale, June McCormack, Catherine McEvoy, Louise Mulcahy, Jimmy Noonan, Laura Byrne and Shannon Heaton while whistle blowers have their choice of Mary Bergin, Brendan Dolan, Frank Claudy and Margie Mulvihill.

The box brigade is led by the McComiskeys (Billy and son Sean), Jackie Daly, David Munnelly, Damien Connolly, Martin Quinn, Annmarie Acosta, Mick Mulcahy and James Keane, and its smaller cousin the concertina features Dr. Gearoid O'hAllmhurain, Micheal O'Raghallaigh, Edel Fox, Michelle Mulcahy and Tim Collins this year.

As for Ireland's symbolic instruments, Michael Rooney and Michelle Mulcahy handle the harp and the pipes played by Brian McNamara, Cillian Vallely, Benedict Koehler and first-timer to the CIAW Mattie Connolly, well known to a variety of New York fans.

Singers will have Tim Dennehy, Roisin White, Daithi Sproule, Pat Egan, Julee Glaub, Mark Weems, Shannon Heaton, Catherine Crowe and Kathy Ludlow to pay attention to all week on stage and in the nightly Frank Harte Singing Club at Darby's Pub.

Those who appreciated accompaniment will recognize some of the best names in the business in Felix Dolan and Donna Long on piano, Paul deGrae, Daithi Sproule, Pat Egan and Matt Heaton on guitar, Angelina Carberry, Frank McCormick and Don Meade on banjo (he also does mouth organ and is an All-Ireland champion on it), Myron Bretholz and Paddy League on bodhran and Jimmy Kelly Senior on ceili drums and Roger Landes from New Mexico on bouzouki and mandolin.

Dancers can look forwarded to the sure-footed efforts of Mick Mulkerrin and Mairead Casey, two of Ireland's finest set dance teachers and sean nos dancers. Donny Golden, the Bay Ridge Baryshnikov as Mick Moloney likes to call him, will exhibit contemporary step dancing, while Kieran Jordan from Philadelphia by way of Boston will display her various academic leanings gleaned at the University of Limerick towards interpreting Irish dancing in a modern context as well as some Cape Breton stepping.

Michigan's Anne McCallum will help the dancing neophytes in a basic set dancing class also.

There are also craft's classes in jewelry, enameling, stone carving led by CIAW stalwarts Linda Hickman, Catherine Crowe and Laura Travis plus Irish knitting this year with Sheila Hogg. Bairbre McCarthy, Karen Ashbrook, Glaub, Weems, Ludlow, Jonathan Srour are also leading a very fine children's program which give parents some freedom during the day and helps to pass on the tradition to yet another generation.

All in all another captivating week in the Catskills looks to be a certainty especially as the week builds to a weekend crescendo honoring Andy McGann at the festival on July 21.

For more information contact the host organization, the M.J. Quill Irish Cultural and Sports Center at 518-634-2286 or visit www.east-durham.org or email irishartsweek@ gmail.com