There is nothing quite like families playing music together, especially these days when technology so often tends to replace both instrument and musician. Sunday night's opening was certainly a case in point. Sharon and Mary Shannon from Clare, and Liz and Yvonne Keane from Letterfrack, got the evening off to a high octane start with a simple but dramatic formula - four unison fiddles, with backing from Jim Murray on guitar, Ronnie O' Flynn on bass and Lloyd Byrne on drums and percussion.

In a world so long dominated by men, sisters are now most definitely doing it for themselves, doing it together, doing it well and apparently having a great time in the process.

While the music flowed in that effortless way that it does between family members steeped in the tradition, the repertoire, style and tightness of arrangement were contemporary and eclectic, moving from traditional jigs and reels through Galician waltzes to contemporary compositions.

The show stealer, however, was a horse of a different colour - maroon and white, to be precise.

Dessie O'Halloran, exuberant in his delight at Galway's sporting victory and seemingly destined for stardom coming up to his 61st birthday, burst on to the stage for the second half of the show.

Dessie seems poised to do for those songs unheard since the days of the Walton's programme what Michael Flatley did for Irish dancing.

Delivering the likes of Hello Patsy Fagan and The Pound Road in an utterly unreconstructed style, he had the audience eating out of the palm of his hand within seconds. The piΦce de rΘsistance was one of his encores, Courtin' in the Kitchen, complete with a reggae groove and backing from all eight instrumentalists, including second bass guitarist Ger Kiely.

Purists beware. This was music at its most exuberant. And it was great fun.