Opening Night - Thursday 30 May - 8pm
St Caimin Church of Ireland
Mountshannon
Free with wristband
- ramps needed
Mountshannon Arts festival 2024 will be officially opened by poet Kerri ní Dochartaigh
Kerri ní Dochartaigh is a mother, writer and grower. Her work currently explores ideas of emergency, interconnectedness and ecologies of care.
Her first book, Thin Places, was published by Canongate in Spring 2021, for which she was awarded the Butler Literary Award 2022, and highly commended for the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing 2021.
Cacophony of Bone was published by Canongate in May 2023 and was longlisted for the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing 2023.
She lives in Clare with her family.
Photo Credit Paul McCarthy
Aisling Lyons & Kseniia Rusnak
Aisling Lyons (Clare, Ireland) and Kseniia Rusnak (Ukraine) met in April 2021 through their mutual love of music, specifically the harps of their native countries. Their pairing explores the similarities between Irish and Ukrainian cultures.
An Tara (Tommy Hayes & Matthew Noone)
"not so much challenging the borders of Irish Traditional music but playing with it and expanding our senses of what’s achievable" (Folk Radio UK)
An Tara are Tommy Hayes and Matthew Noone. They explore the spaces in between the traditions of Irish music and Indian Classical music. Both regarded as pioneers on their chosen instruments and fearlessly inventive; they create a diverse yet cohesive musical experience.
Matthew Noone, an ex-indie rocker and well-known performer of the 25 stringed Indian instrument called sarode, has studied North Indian Classical music in Kolkata under Sougata Roy Chowdhury for the last twenty years. He has also developed a reputation as a performer of Irish traditional music and electroacoustic improvisation. He has collaborated with Martin Hayes, Steve Cooney, Liam O Maonlai, JIGGY and Lisa Hannigan while also releasing four solo albums of original compositions.
Bodhran player Tommy Hayes has performed and recorded with most of the great names in traditional music and beyond. He has been at the forefront of Irish music for over 30 years. He was a founding member of traditional group, Stockton’s Wing. He is considered one of the greatest bodhran players on the planet.