Who founded the Merriman Summer School? It's a bit like the GPO in Easter Week, according to some observers. Everyone claims to have been there at the Rising; likewise, there are many claims of being in at the start of the Merriman, otherwise known as the "lark in the Clare air".
But the knowing ones say that it was Con Howard, who had a distinguished career in the diplomatic service, who brought the school to life. This is the Howard version of how it happened.
One evening in the late 1960s, in Foley's Bar on Merrion Street in Dublin, Con was enjoying drinks with the late Donal Foley of The Irish Times. As was his wont, he was discussing the poet, Brian Merriman, and the most suitable way in which to honour his memory.
"Foley grabbed me, actually he almost throttled me, and said, `Will you for God's sake do something about it. You've been talking about Merriman for long enough'."
So a committee was formed. Its first effort was to revive a project which had been mooted many years before - the erection of a plaque to Merriman in Feakle, Co Clare, where he was buried in 1804.
His outstanding, if somewhat raunchy, poem, Cuirt an Mheon Oiche (The Midnight Court), had provoked opposition to the project, and the first attempt to have the plaque erected failed. Finally, in 1968, a bronze plaque by Seamus Murphy was erected in Feakle.
The annual summer school has not looked back since. Con Howard's view is that as well as airing questions of national importance, it has helped to revitalise interest in the Irish language and Irish dancing, particularly set dancing.
One of the pleasures at the Merriman is to watch newcomers to the art being coached and then beginning to feel comfortable with it. The thumping of feet on the boards, the swirl of the music, and they're off.
Merriman attracts real enthusiasts, scholars and a lot of people who know how to enjoy themselves.
It can be said that a certain amount of stamina is required if one is to participate fully in the lectures, debates, partying, dancing and impromptu sing-songs that spring up all over town.
The school used to attract journalists from all over the world, but this happens less often nowadays. This is not necessarily a sign that the school is in decline, although there have been rumblings that the programme is too long and that some of the lectures over-extend the audience. These are fine points which can be addressed.
The evidence, though, is that despite the poor weather and sometimes dismal August days, this year's school, which has just ended in Ennistymon, attracted many new converts as well as familiar faces.
Con Howard conjectures that the Merriman contribution to the revival of interest in matters Irish has paved the way for such phenomena as Riverdance and the new pride in and diversity of Irish music.
In the earlier years, through the influence of Donal Foley, The Irish Times sponsored hurling matches at the school. The late Seamus Kelly, then Quidnunc on this paper, was a regular commentator on the work of the school.
The Feakle ceremony to honour Merriman attracted thousands of people. The massive vote of confidence in the project effectively saw off the opposition, and from that boost flowed the school itself.
Con Howard has not rested on his laurels: other projects are in hand.
The main one concerns the American Civil War and the Irish involvement in it. This will be a gathering with a difference. It will happen on both sides of the Atlantic under the auspices of the Society of Saint Brendan - also a Howard brainchild.
It will be a salute to the Irish diaspora and its contribution to the nations of the world. But chiefly it will examine the tragic events of a tragic war in which so many Irish people, Protestant and Catholic, from north and south, lost their lives.
The plan is that the conference will take place next year at three centres in America. It will bring together the most eminent scholars in the field to discuss and debate how, on the Union and Confederate side, the Irish participated in some of the greatest battles of the war.
There are, says Con Howard, a myriad of stories, some as of yet not in the public domain, to be explored. He adds that the conference may shed new light on a defining period for the Irish who left these shores and became caught up in a conflict that defined and shaped America.
Ad hoc groups in Ireland and America are already working on the project, which is slowly but surely taking shape. Families from Munster to Ulster were touched by the war in many ways.
After the conference, the contributions will be edited and published, hopefully bringing together in one place much new material for the first time.
After the initial meetings in America, there will be a massive gathering in Ireland - probably on the western seaboard, and appropriately so, given the numbers who left from that side of the country for the new world.
The dark period of Irish racism towards blacks in New York during the war will also be examined. Con himself will address the conference on Gen Curtin of the Union Army, who hailed from Dysart O'Dea in Clare. He was the governor of Pennsylvania and the director of elections for Lincoln.