I did a workshop with a Colm O'Donnell at a Fleadh Ceoil in Riverstown Co. Sligo that I thought was very helpful. He had each of the participants auditon with a song of their own choosing as we sat around in a circle. He selected a suitable song for competitions, THE DEAR LITTLE ISLE and we went around the room and practiced phrases of it until we sang it. Colm talked about style and ornamentation. We learned a little bit about how to learn songs through abc notation, tape recorder(I went out and bought one after returning from Ireland)and breaking the song down into bits and putting it back together. There was some discission on how to select appropriate songs and the role of the schools in supporting tradition-I recall he seemed to think that the schools could be helpful in teaching music and Irish language to the children but that the tradition belonged to the people. He encouraged people to go to summer music schools which are prevalent in Ireland. He mentioned one where Paddy Tunney taught.