Our featured Irish performers include:
John Spillane
John Spillane is a musician, songwriter, performer, recording artist, storyteller, poet, dreamer. The man and his music are pure magic. John is a native of Cork, the County he lovingly describes as “the centre of the universe,” and it has been a huge creative influence on him. Vocally, he is quite unique with an almost sean nós-like (old style) element in his singing and he is said to have a voice “full of honesty, commitment and sensitivity. ”
“He’s carved a niche writing melodic, compelling, simple songs. Spillane is at his best when his delivery is unforced and lyrical.” Oliver P. Sweeney, The Ticket, Irish Times
Click here to watch John Spillane sing "All the Ways you Wander"
Blackie O’Connell and Cyril O’Donoghue
(‘Foolin in Doolin’)
Blackie O’Connell is one of the most exciting uilleann pipers in traditional music. He has his own distinctive style and is currently living, and playing, at the heart of Irish music in County Clare. Blackie regularly tours Europe, USA and the Far East and is recognizable from his role as an ambassador for Irish Tourism.
Click here to watch Blackie and Cyril play on the streets of Ennis
Cyril O’Donoghue, bouzouki player and singer, is a prominent feature in Ennis and County Clare’s traditional music scene.
Click here to watch Cyril sing
Seamus Begley
Seamus Begley is the possessor of one of the tradition’s tenderest voices. It embodies a vulnerability that seems at odds with his garrulous personality. An interpreter completely at home in that delicate space where singers must venture to fully inhabit a song. The Irish Times
Cathy Jordan
Roscommon born Cathy Jordan has been a professional singer with traditional group, Dervish, for over 25 years now. She is a self-taught guitar, bouzouki, bodhrán and bones player. She has led Dervish as front woman through thousands of concerts in hundreds of cities in nearly 40 countries. Not only is Cathy a renown Irish artist, she also leads two Inishfree Tours each year.
Click here to watch Kathy sing
Donogh Hennessy
Donogh Hennessy, who has performed and recorded with many leading Irish bands/artists, including Sharon Shannon, Lumiere, John Spillane, and Seamus Begley, will join Seamus Begley as well as Cathy Jordan on the cruise.
