Irish Trad Music Blog

GORDON DEEGAN CLARE COUNTY Council’s high-tech chamber last night provided a platform for the Kilfenora Céilí Band to showcase its talents. In a forum that is more accustomed lately to hearing councillors quarrel over the growing size of potholes on the roads, the céilí band last night provided rich entertainment and some relief after the council’s recent battles with the floods and the freeze. One of Ireland’s best-known Irish traditional music bands, the Kilfenora Céilí Band was last night being honoured by the county council after celebrating its centenary in 2009. The céilí band, which includes a farmer, a carpenter, a social worker and a number of teachers from Co Clare, shared the limelight with music legends Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young at last year’s Glastonbury festival in England. The band is made up of three fiddle players, two flute players, a pianist, an accordion player, a drummer, a banjo player and a concertina player. The current line-up has been together by and la...

It’s not easy to sum up Shaskeen’s 39 years of music making and entertainment, but listening to the trad band’s new CD ‘Walking Up Town’, it is clear that they are going to be leading the way for quite a while yet. Like many Irish traditional musicians, Shaskeen has been caught up in the whirlwind of the set-dancing era, and their last four albums were comprised of music for the sets. Now they are making a change to concert-style performances. ‘Walking Up Town’ – remarkably, the band’s 15th album – marks a return to their original musical formula. It’s an album ‘for listening to’, and it features a generous collection of jigs, reels, waltzes, polkas, barn dances and songs. The title tune is an American ‘breakdown’, a fun rag-style tune. It’s probably the best summing up the band could ask for. It is hard to beat well-seasoned musicians, and the members of Shaskeen are as experienced as they are skilful. The band has maintained the same ethos over its many years of making music – and th...

The annual O'Carolan Harp, Cultural and Heritage Festival will takes place in Nobber from Thursday 1st October until Sunday 4th October and will feature a wide range of events, including the legendary Kilfenora Ceili Band and Sileas, the renowned Scottish harpers. On the opening night of the festival, archaeologist Matthew Seaver will give a talk on Nobber and the Barony of Morgallion in Nobber Community Hall at 8pm, under the auspices of Meath Archaeological and Historical Society. Sileas will play in O'Carolan College on Friday 2nd October, with support from harpists Dearbhail Finnegan and Cormac De Barra. This is the first time that Sileas has played at the O'Carolan Festival, and their playing will add to the centuries-old relationship between Irish and Scottish harpers. On Saturday 3rd October at 11am in O'Carolan College, Kathleen Loughnane from Nenagh will give a talk on 'The Harpers Connellan'. The brothers Thomas and William Connellan were born in Co. S...

The famous family group the Mulcaheys in private concert

All-Ireland 2007 Champions the Allow Céilí Band play "The Flowing Tide Hornpipe". They are then presented with their trophy by the President of Comhaltas, Jim Teevan. Band members are Meabh Buckley, Geraldine O'Callaghan and Áine O'Connell on fiddles, Gerry Nunan and William Pearse on flutes, Eimear Buckley on concertina, Adrian Mc Auliffe on banjo, John Carroll on button accordion, Pat Mulcahy on drums and Clodagh Buckley on piano.