"Ok, I admit it, it was Riverdance." The reasons so many people travel over the snowbound mountains of Donegal after Christmas for the Frankie Kennedy School of Traditional Music are indeed diverse.
Kira Ott, from Los Angeles, who described herself as "half Irish by a long shot", had seen Riverdance and nothing could hold her back.
She plays whistle, fiddle and "anything that anyone throws at me", and once word got out about a special school of traditional music in Donegal she had to come.
Her friend, Howard Chu, has no Irish background, but is a devoted Irish fiddle player. He heard about the Frankie Kennedy School during "Willie Week" in Clare and came here for the Donegal style, which he describes as "high-energy and kinda crisp".
The sixth annual school opened yesterday in the Lakeside Centre in Dunlewey. The school was set up to honour the memory of Frankie Kennedy, flautist with Altan, who died at 38 of bone cancer.
It is run on a voluntary basis by Gearoid O Maonaigh and is now, he says, "unstoppable".
Even if he wanted to bale out, he couldn't. There are already inquiries for next year. In any case, he says, "Frankie was my brother-in-law. He was married to my sister [Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh of Altan] and he was my wife's brother."
The school provides a focus for those who knew Frankie, including flautist Tara Diamond, Dermot McLoughlin, artform director with the Arts Council, whose partner, Ursula, is another sister of Frankie, and the members of Altan, including Frankie's widow, Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh, and her husband of several months, box player Dermot Byrne.
Opening the festival, Dermot McLoughlin called the school one of the most important in the country. He said it was an inspiring event, which was fitting, as "to inspire" meant to blow into, and that was what Frankie did with gusto with his flute, and with even greater gusto with his jokes and repartee.
This year's school has students of traditional instruments from Japan, Indonesia and all over Europe and the US. There will be concerts by top traditional artists such as Artie McGlynn, Tommy Peoples and, of course, Altan themselves, who will raise the roof of the Lakeside Centre on Saturday and Sunday.