‘Siarlinn’ in Kilrush? ;)

Heavens above – what a fleadh! Ennis has just hosted the Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann 2016 and it has really been enjoyed by everybody from near and far. Many people of Clare who don’t follow music that much travelled in just to see the town looking fabulous and were amazed by the friendly atmosphere of all there. There were people playing music and doing Irish step-dancing on the streets from the ages of three or four to 99 I’d say!! And when the weekend storm arrived the atmosphere barely dampened at all.

I had an amazing time as, a couple of weeks before the fleadh my friends and I decided to get a group of us together to do a mini show on one of the gig rigs (outside stages giving free entertainment for the crowds). Mairéad Considine on concertina, Orla Coughlan on fiddle, myself on flute, Caoimhe Millar on accordion and vocals and Caitriona O’Gorman on keyboard accompaniment. ‘Siarlinn‘!!

We decided to include some dancing and Orla, being friends with a beautiful dancer from Lisseycasey, Sinéad Neylon – procured a dancer of very high calibre! World acclaimed and a member of the cast of the Riverdance show – Sinéad gracefully agreed to dance with our show! Mairéad then, being a member of a highly skilled set-dancing group Inis Cathaigh from west Clare, was delighted that they agreed to be part of the show too and on we went from there.

A few rehearsals later and we were on the Shannon Airport Gig Rig last Wednesday night performing to about 5000 people!! Great fun playing our music, lovely singing by Caoimhe and Lots of great reactions from our audience! The dancing was all beautiful (Mairéad included!) and I would watch it forever myself – a privilege to play for it! And we could hear how people were enjoying the music too of course. 😉

So, I hope to have some videos to upload soon for you to see but in the meantime…back to our regular sessions! Three of the founding members of Siarlinn (Orla, Mairéad and myself) will be in Crotty’s Kilrush tonight (Tues 23rd August) and we may possibly do a live stream during the session  – just for the craic! (We did a live stream of two of my own tunes a fortnight ago and got so many compliments and it was great because the two tunes were the reels I wrote for the girls; Mairéad’s Paradise and Orla’ Intent! You can find the notes for them here on my music page.)

I played in Myles’ Creek, Kilkee on Sun with Róisín Considine (accordion) and Matt on guitar/vocals and at the end of the night a gentleman from Co Galway but living in the UK most of his adult life, came up to us and played a few tunes on whistle! Lovely man called Ger James Lyons.