The Marketown Music Collective has come a long way in the three and a half years since its founder, Ken McCue, set it up with a lot of enthusiasm and the princely sum of a fiver. Based in Dublin's north inner city, the collective teaches music to some of the most disadvantaged children in the city.

McCue, a cultural officer with the Dublin Inner City Partnership, first came across the idea during a visit to Bologna in Italy. Here he encountered "afternoon schools" which bring performance arts into the classroom.

Having grown up in the markets area of Dublin, McCue is very aware of the rich musical tradition there. However, he says, something changed in the mid-Seventies. "I noticed a move away from the teaching of music in the classroom despite the fact that there was a greater awareness of music on the streets. The shift was happening in schools in working-class areas, while more affluent schools were introducing music to exam level and to compliment other subjects such as maths."

When the opportunity arose, he set up an adaptation of this programme in the markets area of the north-west inner city in February, 1995. The collective was initially financed by the Department of the Taoiseach and FAS.

"There was a lot of banging on doors in the beginning to get it up and running. Even now the funding we're getting is just about enough to cover the day-to-day running of the office and the wages," according to Fergus Egan, the collective's supervisor.

The collective is made up of professional musicians who come from broad and varied musical backgrounds. The tutors' main objective is to convey their own love of music and pleasure in music-making, while also ensuring that the classes are educational.

They use a teaching method developed by the Hungarian musician, Zoltan Kodaly. The emphasis is on practical music-making through singing. Helped by various musical games, the students learn about notation, rhythm and the scale.

The programme also covers the areas of listening and appraising, encouraging students to explore a range of musical styles as well as learning about the history of music.

Students write their own songs and, after a number of weeks, they will have their very own tape, recorded by the collective, to show for their trouble.

One of the participating musicians, guitarist Davy Watson, puts the success of the workshops down to the informal atmosphere. "We don't stand up the front and lecture kids about music," he says. "We try to get them involved. They think of us more as mates than teachers.

"Some of the boys we teach would be fairly tough but they all want to be part of the workshops. We try to get the message across that `it's uncool to be a hard man' even though they have people like Liam Gallagher telling them the opposite. We keep telling them - Hey, you've got a talent!"

Curiosity is the key, says Watson. "I was teaching them about the Blues and how it started out as work songs among black slaves. At the same time their teacher gave them an essay to do on American plantations."

The collective has been passed back and forth between the Department of Education and Science and the Arts Council since it was set up, with neither body seeming prepared to take responsibility for funding it on a full-time basis. Despite this Egan is optimistic - they recently got a grant of £6,000 from the Brussels-based Yehudi Menuhin Foundation, a group with similar aims.

The money was used to introduce the programme to St Mary's National School on Dorset Street. Altogether 120 boys and girls between first and third class are benefiting from the music classes and the project intends to show the foundation just what can be done if the resources are there.

"The Arts Council support individual artists rather than fund arts education," says Egan. "What I'd like to see is a joint approach between the Department and the Council to support us. With backing from the Menuhin Foundation, I'm confident this will happen."

An Arts Council spokesperson said that it was supportive of the development, describing it as "a timely opportunity" for it to become involved in funding the collective, directly or indirectly.

Already a former collective member, A K Kennedy, has brought the idea across the Liffey, setting up a similar programme in the South West Inner City Network. Next year the Inner City Partnership intends to introduce the programme to more schools in the area.

Eventually, the collective wants to set up a world music centre specifically for children and are involved in a consortium which is trying to acquire St Paul's Church on Arran Quay under the Heritage Area Rejuvenation Project.

Egan feels that the work of the collective is invaluable, pointing to a number of studies which have found that teaching music in schools has helped to tackle crime and racism in disadvantaged communities. "If we reach the kids early then we can prevent problems arising at a later stage."