Live Irish Music at Chief O'Neill's - Diarmuid Ó Meachair & Rockaway Bound
About this Event
Rockaway Bound is a new Irish traditional music ensemble featuring Diarmuid Ó Meachair (Accordion, Melodeon & vocals), Andrew Caden (fiddle), Seamus Noonan (flute), Colman Connolly (piano), and Richard Osban (Greek bouzouki). Bringing together musicians from Ireland and the United States.
Rockaway Bound, refers to the Rockaway Peninsula in New York, which became an important center of Irish social and musical life during the twentieth century. In the decades following the great waves of Irish immigration, Rockaway developed a reputation as a summer destination for New York's Irish community. During the 1930s and 1940s, Irish musicians, singers, dancers, and audiences gathered at the peninsula's hotels, dance halls, clubs, and resorts. The McNulty family—among the most important Irish American musical families of the period—became particularly associated with this scene, performing regularly in Rockaway from the early 1930s onward. The area became an important place for Irish musicians in New York at the time.
This Rockaway peninsula was part of a much larger Irish musical culture that had developed in New York from the previous decades. The city became a crucial hub for the commercial recording of Irish musicians during the 1920s 78 RPM and wax cylinder era. Influential musicians such as Michael Coleman, Peter Conlon, John McKenna and the McNulty family performed on the Rockaway peninsula during the summer months.
At its core, Rockaway Bound is a project about the musicians who built New York's Irish music culture and how they carried their traditions across the Atlantic, adapted them to new circumstances, recorded them, and created communities in which the music could flourish. Nearly a century later, Rockaway Bound follows that same transatlantic journey, connecting the sounds preserved on 78 RPM records and in the memories of Irish American communities with the living practice of Irish traditional music today.
Diarmuid Ó Meachair is a traditional Irish accordion and melodeon player from Cúil Aodha, Co. Cork and is also a sean-nós singer. In 2022, he was awarded the prestigious TG4 Ceoltóir Óg na Bliana (Young Musician of the Year). Diarmuid currently teaches Irish traditional music at University College Cork and also teaches Irish music at Holy Cross University in Worcester, Massachusetts. He is a former member of De Dannan, with whom he performed internationally from 2022. Over the past two years, Diarmuid has released four solo albums and he has been nominated for three RTÉ Folk Awards: Best Instrumentalist (2023 & 2024) and Best Emerging Artist (2023). He has toured in the US as a solo artist consistently since 2023 and is in high demand as a performer, presenter, instructor and organizer.
www.diarmuidomeachair.com
Andrew Caden is a fiddle player originally from Bethesda, Maryland USA. He is now based in Dublin working at the Irish Traditional Music Archive and is completing an MA programme in Archives & Records Management at the University College of Dublin this year. Andrew was taught primarily by New York fiddle player, Brian Conway, and his musical influences come from people like Michael Coleman, James 'Lad' O'Beirne, Seán McGuire, and Frankie Gavin. He is in high demand as both a performer and a teacher at many traditional music festivals throughout Ireland, and he has been recognised by numerous established traditional musicians as one of the most promising young Irish fiddle players of today. Andrew released a duet album with flute player Conor McDonagh called "Across the Atlantic" in June 2025 which is available on Bandcamp. It has been met with critical acclaim from The Journal of Music and The Irish Echo.
Seamus Noonan is an accomplished Irish traditional flute and concertina player from the Boston area, learning his music from his father, renowned musician Jimmy Noonan. Deeply influenced by legendary flute players such as Seamus Tansey and John McKenna, Seamus brings a strong sense of tradition to his playing. His dedication to Irish music has earned him recognition at the highest levels — he was a finalist in the 2014 and 2024 Seán Ó Riada competitions, and has placed in multiple Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann events, including the 2023 and 2024 Senior Flute competitions in Mullingar and Wexford.
Colman Connolly was born into one of Irish music’s real families. His father is a world-class button-accordion player from Ireland who’s shared stages with the likes of Sting; his mother is a flute player; his grandfather built accordions for a living; and his great-uncle Seamus is a renowned fiddler. On his mother’s side, Peter McCann was a prominent Nashville songwriter. He grew up playing traditional Irish music in pubs and bars and competing in Ireland — winning the International Accompaniment Competition at sixteen. He taught himself piano at six off YouTube, picked up guitar and bass, and as a teenager founded the cover band The Low Darts, where he is the sing lead and play keys and guitar — and shot the early promos himself. The Low Darts have 14.7 million views online.
Today he’s an Audio Production student at MTSU, producing for Nashville artists like Savannah Span and Josie James, and writing his own songs to release. Pianist, singer, producer, multi-instrumentalist — and just getting started.
https://colman-connolly.com
Richard Osban is a driving and dynamic Greek bouzouki player based in Baltimore, Maryland. He cut his teeth on Irish music while living in Europe and toured internationally with several Irish and Scottish music projects before returning to the US. He is the director of the Baltimore Irish Music School and, organizer of the Baltimore Irish Tenor Banjo Summit, and assistant director of the Baltimore Irish Trad Fest.
https://baltimoreirishmusicschool.org/about
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 28.52
