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seasonal · Monday 20 July 2026 · 11:00am 
Music Generation Laois Trad Summer School 2026
At Portlaoise Further Education and Training Centre · Tower Hill, Portlaoise, Co. Laois
At Portlaoise Further Education and Training Centre · Tower Hill, Portlaoise, Co. Laois
Every summer, Music Generation Laois brings together some of Ireland’s finest traditional musicians for a three-day intensive that draws young players from across the county and beyond. The Trad Summer School is open to students aged 8 and upwards who have some experience on their instrument - it is not a beginners’ course, but it welcomes players from recent beginners right through to advanced level. For any young person serious about Irish traditional music, spending three days learning directly from musicians of the calibre of Siobhan Peoples and John Kelly is a genuinely rare opportunity.
Classes run each morning and afternoon across Friday, Saturday and Sunday, covering instruments including flute, concertina, harp, uilleann pipes and bodhrán. Students are placed into groups suited to their level on the advice of the tutors, so no one is thrown in at the deep end or held back. Sessions take place at Portlaoise Further Education and Training Centre on Tower Hill.
The weekend opens on Friday evening with a Gala Concert at the Dunamaise Arts Centre - Portlaoise’s main performance venue on Church Street - where the tutors themselves take the stage. It is a proper concert, not a warm-up act, and it sets the tone for the weekend. The school closes on Sunday with a Finale Concert where the students perform what they have worked on. Admission to the Finale is free, with donations welcome, so family and friends can come along without paying in.
Portlaoise sits on the M7 motorway, roughly 80 kilometres south-west of Dublin, and is one of the most easily reached county towns in the Midlands. By road, the M7 connects directly from Dublin; from Cork or Limerick the same motorway runs north. The town is also on the main Dublin Heuston to Cork/Limerick rail line, with regular daily services stopping at Portlaoise station, which is a short walk from the town centre. The Further Education and Training Centre on Tower Hill is close to the town centre, and street parking is generally available nearby.
If you are travelling from a distance for the weekend, the town has a handful of good places to eat and the Dunamaise Arts Centre runs a varied programme of events through the summer. There is more to see in Portlaoise and across Co. Laois.
Heading to Portlaoise Further Education and Training Centre in Portlaoise? Laois has plenty more to see. Read the Portlaoise area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.