TRAD WEEK LETTERKENNY

Name: TRAD WEEK LETTERKENNY
Start: 2025-01-24T20:00:00+00:00
End: 2025-02-01T20:00:00+00:00
Location: An Grianan Theatre

Schedule

Fri, 24 Jan, 2025 at 08:00 pm to Sat, 01 Feb, 2025 at 08:00 pm

UTC+00:00

Location

An Grianan Theatre | Letterkenny, DL

Trad Week, Letterkenny’s much-loved annual celebration of Irish traditional, folk, and world music, proudly returns this January with a mixture of evening performances and lunchtime recitals. Presented by the Regional Cultural Centre and An Grianán Theatre, the 2025 edition promises an exciting array of dynamic collaborations featuring Irish Traditional, Kurdish Folk, American Bluegrass, Contemporary Classical and more.
Performers include Tim O’Brien and Jan Fabricius with Seamie O’Dowd and Dermot Byrne, Jargon, Mohammad Syfkhan, Shamrock Showband, Bríd Harper & Ryan Molloy, Coirm, Huartan, Cigire na bPuntaí, Cormac McCarthy & Aoife Ní Bhriain, So Young Yoon & Seamus Gibson.
The Line Up
Fri 24 January at 8pm
Tim O’Brien and Jan Fabricius with Seamie O’Dowd and Dermot Byrne
€15/€12
Regional Cultural Centre
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Multi-Grammy winner Tim O’Brien has spent the last 50 years touring the globe with his unique blend of American Folk, Bluegrass, Blues, and Celtic music. He has collaborated with Mark Knopfler and Steve Earle, and his original songs were covered by Garth Brooks and the Dixie Chicks. For this special concert, O’Brien and his wife, mandolinist and singer Jan Fabricius, join forces with Irish traditional musicians Dermot Byrne (accordion) and Seamie O’Dowd (guitar, fiddle, bouzouki, vocals).
Sat 25 January at 8pm
A Night For Kinnycally Hall
€15/€12
Regional Cultural Centre
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The Kinnycall Hall in St. Johnston was built by Jamie Peoples, one of the great Donegal fiddlers of his time. His descendants number amongst the most famous Irish fiddlers. This concert will see a host of the best Donegal fiddlers and local musicians performing in support of the restoration project of Kinnycally Hall.
Sun 26 January at 8pm
Jargon
€15/€12
Regional Cultural Centre
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Jargon, the highly talented acoustic quartet, return with their unique blend of Ragtime, Blues, Folk, and Bluegrass. Initially formed in 1973 by Eurovision winner Charlie McGettigan and later reformed in 2023, they earned acclaim by winning the prestigious Letterkenny Folk Festival, following in the footsteps of Clannad and Pumpkinhead. The group features Charlie McGettigan alongside Gerry Grennan, Liam Gilmartin, and Brian Mulligan.
Wednesday 29 January, 8.00pm
Mohammad Syfkhan and Shamrock Showband
€15/€12
An Grianán Theatre
BOOK NOW
Mohammad Syfkhan is an Irish-based Kurdish/Syrian singer and Bouzouki player. Mohammad’s brand of ecstatic music takes elements from Middle Eastern and North African music to create an atmosphere of joy, love and happiness. His debut album ‘I Am Kurdish’ came out on Nyahh Records in February.
The Shamrock Showband is made up of Jamie Bishop and Conor McAuley. Drawing heavily from Irish Showbands, American country ballads, and old-timey fiddle music, their live shows incorporate a mixture of sultry vocals, country fiddle, lush pedal steel, and sampling that creates an exciting pastiche of the glamorous Showband era.
Thursday 30 January, 7.30pm
It’s a Fine Thing to Sing – Songs and Singers of the Inishowen Peninsula
(Film Screening)
€8
BOOK NOW
Regional Cultural Centre
A 60-minute documentary, directed by award-winning filmmaker Bob Gallagher, featuring Ian Lynch (Lankum/Fire Draw Near), Ye Vagabonds and The Henry Girls arranging and singing six songs from Clonmany and Buncrana singers: Roseanne McGonigle, Dan McGonigle, Mary Ann Canny, Corney McDaid, and a visitor to Inishowen, Ardara singer Packie Manus Byrne. The recordings are framed within Inishowen’s stunning landscape, interwoven with atmospheric archival recordings of the original singers, and interviews with contemporary members of the Inishowen song community.
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the Director Bob Gallagher.
Friday 31 January, 8.00pm
Bríd Harper & Ryan Molloy (with support from Coirm)
€15 / €12
Regional Cultural Centre
BOOK NOW
Join two of Ireland’s finest musicians, Bríd Harper & Ryan Molloy, in an exciting concert featuring traditional Irish fiddle and piano. Bríd Harper is a leading fiddle player with numerous prestigious titles including the Senior All-Ireland and Fiddler of Dooney. She has released two critically acclaimed solo albums and collaborated with Dermot Byrne, Steve Cooney, Arty McGlynn, and Sylvain Barou. Ryan Molloy, an award-winning pianist, composer and Associate Professor at Maynooth University, received this year’s TG4 Gradam Ceoil Composer of the Year award and has worked with ensembles such as the Danish String Quartet and the Ulster Orchestra.
Saturday 1 February, 8.00pm
Huartan | Cigire na bPuntaí
€15/€12
An Grianán Theatre
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Over the past year, Belfast’s ‘tradtronica’ band have been breathing new life into ancient words and melodies. The group consists of three Irish traditional musicians: Catriona Ní Ghribín, Múlú, and Stiofán Ó Luachrain, who also serves as the band’s producer. They aim to reintroduce the oral singing traditions of Ulster to a wider audience.
Cigire na bPuntaí creates a new and exciting perspective on modern Gaeltacht life through a powerful fusion of electronic and trad music with famous quotes and phrases in the Irish language. This new-age form of storytelling tells the story of the Gaeltacht like it has never been told before!
Lunchtime recitals
For our Trad Week lunchtime recitals, we are dusting off our grand piano and inviting back two of our past IMC Navigator Jazz residency artists Cormac McCarthy and So Young Yoon.
Tuesday 28 January, 1.00pm
Lunchtime Recital: Cormac McCarthy and Aoife Ní Bhriain
€5
An Grianán Theatre
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Cork-based composer, pianist and arranger Cormac McCarthy brings a background across traditional, jazz, and classical to his innovative music. Presenting an individualistic use of Irish traditional tunes in the jazz idiom along with sweepingly cinematic textures, McCarthy successfully marries these two strong genres. Accompanying him is fiddle player Aoife Ni Bhriain who combines the richness of a family heritage of traditional music and a lifetime of classical music training.
Friday 31 January, 1.00pm
Lunchtime Recital: So Young Yoon and Seamus Gibson
€5
An Grianán Theatre
BOOK NOW
So Young Yoon is a jazz pianist and composer. Yoon has been actively participating in the Dublin jazz scene since 2008, having frequently performed at legendary jazz club J.J. Smyth’s, both as a band leader and guest musician, and has collaborated with most of the leading jazz musicians in Dublin. She will be joined by Donegal fiddle virtuoso/composer Seamus Gibson and will perform piano arrangements of his compositions developed with him during her residency at An Grianán last year.
Trad Week Letterkenny is presented by the Regional Cultural Centre & An Grianán Theatre with the kind support of Donegal County Council & Arts Council Ireland.