Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh

Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh is a native of the Donegal Gaeltacht of Gaoth Dobhair. Her first language is Gaelic and she has learnt many of her songs from family and neighbours as well as sourcing older material from archive facilities. She is renowned as one of the leading exponents of Donegal fiddle music and likes to…

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Ciarán Curran

Ciarán Curran is a native of Kinawley, Co.Fermanagh, an area rich in music, song and folklore and brings his strong family musical tradition to bear on an instrument relatively new to Irish traditional music – the bouzouki. Ciarán’s late uncle, Ned Curran, was a great fiddle player and has given the band many tunes from…

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Dáithí Sproule

Dáithí Sproule of Derry, whose first group was legendary Skara Brae, has lived for many years in Minnesota. Dáithí was one of the first guitarists to develop DADGAD guitar tuning for Irish music. As well as playing and singing with Altan, he has performed and recorded with two highly influential traditional music trios; Bowhand (with…

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Mark Kelly

Mark Kelly’s earliest musical inspirations were rock and jazz. Born and raised in Dublin, his mother was a jazz singer. Like all the other members of the band, Mark listens to a wide range of music especially Steely Dan, rhythm and blues and country. Mark brings more of those subtle and sometimes adventurous influences from…

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Martin Tourish

Máirtín Tourish is an accordionist, composer, producer and musicologist from Co. Donegal and now based in Dublin. His ancestors were collectors of dance music whose manuscripts date from 1896. Martin’s debut album Clan Ranald with bouzouki player Luke Ward was released in 2005 and listed by music critic Earle Hitchner of the Irish Echo and…

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Clare Friel

Clare Friel, TG4 Gradam Ceoil Ceoltóir Óg/Young Musician of the Year 2018, was born and brought up in Glasgow, Scotland, with very close family ties to Donegal. She is a highly regarded fiddle player and singer and plays as a part of The Friel Sisters. Clare is quickly making a name for herself and has…

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