SNIPPET: A session is any informal gathering of musicians playing together. Nobody is paid to play and the musicians produce the kind of music you cannot buy. Although a session will often feature solo pieces and unaccompanied songs, the overall point is for musicians to play together, even if they're meeting for the first time. For this reason Irish traditional music is based on fixed music forms to give a firm foundation for the airy edifices built up from them. Musicians need an audience, but traditional musicians need a knowledgeable audience, and they'll travel to find one. For the cream of Ireland's musicians, household names with CDs selling across five continents, will drive for hours to perch on rickety vinyl-covered stools in some drafty cross-roads pub. And they'll pay for their own drinks as well, just for the opportunity to trade tunes with their peers and play for people who know enough about music to know when it's really good. Per Spring 2000 issue of "The World of Hibernia" magazine, a session can happen anywhere in Ireland, but you can shorten the odds of finding good music by hunting it down in its natural habitat. Music has always had a strong hold in Ireland. Every parish, village, market town, hill, and lake has its own song. For the traveler in Ireland, music is the key to understanding and to feeling the spirit of the Irish. Tracking down that music can take you to some of the remotest and least known corners of the land. The reward for this musical safari is being in the right place at the right time to catch a 'mighty session.' It's the uncertainty, the randomness of the sessions that are their attraction. Nobody plans the best ones. Or knows exactly where one might start up, at just the "right moment" The Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry has numerous pubs and homegrown musicians. Dingle town is a good place to start, with more bars on the roads out to Dunquin to investigate. Don't miss ceilis featuring Seamus BEGLEY and Steve COONEY - they're THE dance musicians. The villages of West Clare are a hotbed of music - Ennistymon, Lahinch, and Lisdoonvarna have sessions all through the summer, and doubly so during the month-long September matchmaking festival. Cork has a reputation for good musicians Rewarding bars in the city include 'The Lobby,' and 'Se-E.' Out in the country, Clonakilty, Baltimore, and Leap, form a circuit for rambling players. The 'Jolly Roger' on Sherkin Island, a ferry ride from Baltimore, has produced some good nights. Galway is a traditional music center. During the annual July Arts Festival it becomes a home-away-from-home to many of the country's best musicians. The Fleadh Cheoil is an August Bank Holiday event in a different venue each year! . The Fleadh (pronounced, near enough, 'Flar') can be one of the few sure ways of tracking down the best of Irish music in an informal (and how) setting. Horse fairs can be good bets for drink-fueled craic. Ballinasloe Great Fair in County Galway (first and second weekend of October) brings in some of the great traveler musicians, as does Puck Fair in Kilorglin, County Kerry, in August.