2022-10-07 Féile Liam O'Flynn

Féile, the Irish word for Festival.

Liam O'Flynn, a world renowned Uilleann Piper from Kildare.

Put the two together and you get Féile Liam O'Flynn, a three-day festival celebrating the life and music of Liam O'Flynn!

Féile Liam O’Flynn was a three-day traditional Irish music festival taking place in the pubs and music halls of Naas and Kill. There were Céilí dances and Uilleann Pipe and Harp workshops, open air concerts and street musicians, it was a wonderful affair featuring the best of traditional Irish music players.

Did I get to it all? No, it turns out I'm not omnipotent, so I had to make do with only catching a few shows!

Right, now for some photos. We'll start with Friday night in St. Davids Church, Naas and the opening night concert.

Kathryn McKiernan

Joe Byrne

Cormac Mac Aodhagáin and Emmet O Toole

Brian Hughes

Kildare Youth Folk Orchestra

Saturday night I headed down to Poplar Square, Naas to catch FullSet in concert.

Roll on Sunday, the last day of festivities. I started the day in 33 South Main Street in Naas watching Steve Cooney, Laoise Kelly and Louise Mulcahy perform a selection of tunes by and inspired by Liam O'Flynn.

Sunday night, I headed out to the Village Hall in Kill, where Liam O'Flynn grew up, for the closing Gala Concert.

Liam Ó Maonlaí

Steve Cooney

Laoise Kelly

Mark Redmond

Paddy Glackin

Heidi Talbot

Donal Lunney

And then it was all over... There's talk of this becoming an annual festival. If the rumours are true, and I hope they are, this could grow to match some of the best traditional music festivals around and would be a worthy addition to the festival calendar!

Roll on 2023.

Interview with King Kong Company

Originally published 10/09/2013 on Chunk.ie So, there I was, wandering around the Electric Picnic wondering who I was going to watch next. One of the lads said he had heard good things about King Kong Company and that we should check them out, so off we headed to the Body and Soul Arena to do just that. As I mentioned in my review of the Electric Picnic, the gig was epic. I figured we just had to interview them here on CHUNK.ie, and here it is! First things first, congratulations on a storming gig at the Electric Picnic. It completely blew me away. Was this your first Picnic experience? We’ve been to many Electric Picnics over the years but just as punters, and it’s always been a great festival, so it was a fantastic experience to play at its 10 year anniversary. King Kong Company is a rather interesting name for a band, where or how did you come up with it? The name is taken from the film Taxi Driver. If you look closely, Travis Bickle is wearing a badge which says King

2022-03-26 Buskers on Grafton Street, Dublin

I took a walk around Dublin today, thought I'd check out the buskers on Grafton Street. There's a fine history of busking in Dublin, acts like Hothouse Flowers , The Frames , Rodrigo y Gabriela , Damien Rice , Paddy Casey , Kodaline and a host of others all cut their teeth on and around Grafton Street. It stands to reason that some of those busking today will be successful in the future! So, who did I get to see today? Well, check out the photos below: Zoe Clarke Allie Sherlock Paul Jenkinson

2022-11-04 Mairead Carroll - Moat Theatre, Naas

Every now and then I have a choice of gigs to go to... This night, I could have driven into Dublin to see Meryl Streek in the Workmans Club , or I could stay local and go see Mairead Carroll in the Moat Theatre in Naas. Well, it was a no brainer. The weather was terrible and, well, I felt terrible too, so I figured I'd stay local. Mairead has played the Moat Theatre before, but always as support, never as the main attraction. Tonight, would be her debut headline performance and she didn't let anyone down! I'm not quite sure how to describe here music. It's not folk, it's not trad, it's not country or rock... It's. well, it's very light and soft and calming. Mairead is a poet who, only relatively recently, has started putting her words to music. It's a very relaxing affair! Her songs are very personal, and, at first listen, you might think them melancholy, but then you hear the joy and the love in them, and you start to see them for what they

IrishMJ

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