A strong cast has been lined up for this year's school, which marks the 200th anniversary of the poet's death, writes Brian O'Connell

"People over 30 who have some experience of life and are not embittered by it," was how Frank O'Connor summed up Brian Merriman's target audience in his 1945 translation of The Midnight Court. For almost 40 years, artists, academics, farmers and foreign dignitaries have gathered in Co Clare locations for a summer school that celebrates not just the work of poet Brian Merriman but the essence of what makes us, the Irish, tick.

From tomorrow onwards Lisdoonvarna will be host venue for this year's Merriman School with University of Limerick chancellor Seán Donlon delivering the opening address. This year marks the 200th anniversary of Merriman's death, and attracts one of the strongest ever line-ups. Scheduled participants in the 2005 summer school include Maeve Binchy, William Binchy, John Coolohan, Linda Connolly, John F Deane, Seán Donlon, Garret FitzGerald, Áine Hyland, Finola Kennedy, Declan Kiberd, Gabriel Kiely, Margaret McCurtain, Brian Ó Dálaigh, Denis O'Donovan TD, Nuala O'Faolain, Eamon Ryan TD, and Alan Titley.

For many long-term participants, Lisdoonvarna is their Lourdes, taking priority over family weddings, christenings and bar mitzvahs.

A typical Merriman day either begins or ends at 10am, depending on the excesses (and successes) of the night before - prompting one local B&B to display an annual notice affirming that "breakfast will not be served after lunch". The first seminar of the day is a mixed bag, touching on topics as diverse as poets and scholarly men in 18th century Munster to marriage in pre-Christian Ireland. The morning session lasts until 11.45 when, this year for the first time, a daily poetry reading will take place.

From noon until 2pm each day, the real learning begins for many, with the daily set-dancing classes. Normally held in the Spa Well, the classes can include upwards of 200 participants from beginners to the well-heeled, so to speak.

The emphasis this year is on the poet himself, so the focus will be on issues of contemporary relevance The Midnight Court throws up. While some of its more prosaic passages are familiar to many who went through the Irish education system, the passages chosen often did little to represent Merriman's candid views on sex and society.

A main concern of the poem is how men and women relate to each other. andWhilste issues of financial security and social status are less relevant nowadays than in Merriman's time, the issue of compatibility still abounds.

"Relations between men and women are still wary at best and very often hostile," says Nuala O'Faolain. "I don't see many cross-gender friendships. Also, I think there's not much generosity between factions nowadays and that is to be lamented"."

For a festival which includes pretty highbrow topics, one of its successes lies in the way it compels academics to communicate to "plain" people, while simultaneously striving to interpret their own complex material.

So take your places for the sets: now how does it go again? In, two, one, two, three . . .

The Merriman Summer School is on August 20-27th. See www.merriman.ie