A - Z of Performers
John Banville | Kevin Barry | Eavan Boland | Paul Brady | Marina Carr | Martin Carthy | Rosanne Cash | Crash Ensemble | Rodney Crowell | Cathal Coughlan | Donnacha Dennehy | Louis de Paor | Barry Douglas and Camerata Ireland | Lisa Dwan | Anne Enright | Olwen Fouéré | Glen Hansard | Martin Hayes | Andy Irvine | Tríona Marshall | Hisham Matar | Pankaj Mishra | Mick Moloney | John Montague | Paul Muldoon | Maighréad Ní Dhomhnaill | Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill | Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill | Tim O’Brien | Maura O’Connell | Iarla Ó Lionaird | Joseph O’Neill | Lisa O’Neill | Caoimhin Ó Raghallaigh | Cáit O’Riordan | Declan O'Rourke | Kevin Rowland of Dexys | Camille O’Sullivan | Tadhg O’Sullivan | Fintan O’Toole | Ahdaf Soueif | Colm Tóibín | The Tulla Céilí Band | Usher’s Island | Adam Zagajewski
plus more to be announced
John Banville
John Banville’s novels include The Book of Evidence, The Sea, which won the 2005 Man Booker Prize, Ancient Light and, most recently, The Blue Guitar. Under the pen-name Benjamin Black he has written a series of crime novels, including Christine Falls and Even the Dead.Kevin Barry
Kevin Barry is the author of the novels Beatlebone and City Of Bohane and the story collections Dark Lies The Island and There Are Little Kingdoms. He has won the IMPAC Dublin City Literary Award, the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Prize, the European Union Prize for Literature and the 2015 Goldsmiths PrizeEavan Boland
Eavan Boland has published eleven volumes of poetry, including A Woman Without a Country, New Collected Poems and An Origin Like Water: Collected Poems 1967-1987. Her awards include a Lannan Foundation Award in Poetry and an American Ireland Fund Literary Award.Paul Brady @paulbradysongs
The singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist is one of Ireland's most highly regarded and successful artists. He crosses musical boundaries again and again, incorporating folk, rock, blues, traditional Irish & classic pop styles into his songwriting.Marina Carr
Marina Carr is one of Ireland’s leading playwrights. Plays for the Abbey Theatre include Portia Coughlan, By the Bog of Cats, Ariel, Meat and Salt and Marble. In 2015 the Royal Shakespeare Company performed her new version of Hecuba.Martin Carthy
Martin Carthy MBE is an English folk singer and guitarist who has remained one of the most influential figures in British traditional music, inspiring contemporaries such as Bob Dylan and Paul Simon and later artists such as Richard Thompson since he emerged as a young musician in the early days of the folk revival.Rosanne Cash @rosannecash
Rosanne Cash, daughter of country music icon Johnny Cash, is one of the pre-eminent songwriters in American country music with four Grammy Awards and eleven US Number One singles to her name.Crash Ensemble @crashensemble
Founded in 1997 by composer and Artistic Partner Donnacha Dennehy, the Ensemble has worked with many well-known artists from diverse musical backgrounds, such as Steve Reich, Gavin Friday, Dawn Upshaw, Terry Riley, David Lang, Íarla Ó Lionáird, Julie Feeney, Gerald Barry, Gavin Bryars, Michael Gordon, David Lang and Louis Andriessen.Rodney Crowell @RodneyJCrowell
Rodney Crowell is a multi–Grammy Award winner whose songs have been recorded by Johnny Cash, Norah Jones and Etta James. He most recently recorded and toured his duets project with Emmylou Harris.Cathal Coughlan @cathalc_yeah
Cathal Coughlan left Ireland in the 1980s to pursue music in London with his iconoclastic and influential bands Microdisney and The Fatima Mansions.Donnacha Dennehy @DonnachaDennehy
Donnacha Dennehy studied composition at Trinity College Dublin and at the University of Illinois, USA, followed by further study at the Hague and IRCAM. Previously a tenured lecturer at Trinity College Dublin, Donnacha was appointed a Global Scholar at Princeton University in the Autumn of 2012. In 2014 Donnacha joined the music faculty at Princeton University.Louis de Paor
Louis de Paor is one of the most celebrated poets of the Irish language and is a former editor of the acclaimed Irish language journal Innti (founded by Michael Davitt, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Liam Ó Muirthile and Gabriel Rosenstock). Now the Director of the Centre for Irish Studies at the NUI, Galway, de Paor has worked alongside many of the giants of literature in the Irish language such as Sean Ó Tuama with whom he edited a twentieth century anthology of poetry in Irish.Barry Douglas and Camerata Ireland @wbarrydouglas / @camerataireland
Camerata Ireland was founded in 1999 by international pianist, conductor, educator and recording artist, Barry Douglas. His vision was to create a chamber orchestra of excellence to match the best in the world. Camerata Ireland brings together the finest Irish musicians to celebrate the wealth of musical talent from within the island of Ireland, to present a new and positive image of Ireland and to create a unique sound that comes from the orchestra members’ shared musical heritage.Lisa Dwan @Lisadwan
Lisa Dwan is mesmerising in the late Samuel Beckett works Not I and Footfalls, which played to sold-out houses at the Royal Court and Barbican in London. “Like nothing else in theatre” (The Times), the short plays transport audiences to a strangely beautiful, unsettling space where death and decay are never far away. Dwan makes the pieces her own in a virtuosic performance that is chilling and absorbing in equal measure.Anne Enright
Anne Enright is the inaugural Laureate for Irish Fiction. She has published novels, short stories, essays, and one non-fiction book. Her novel The Gathering won the 2007 Man Booker Prize.Olwen Fouéré @olwenfouere
Olwen Fouéré, born of Breton parents, is a multi-award winning actor, director and creative artist. Recent work for theatre includes her internationally acclaimed performances of riverrun in her own adaptation of the voice of the river in Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce, and her performances of Lessness by Samuel Beckett. Recent film includes the BAFTA nominated The Survivalist by Stephen Fingleton. In 2014, she received the Herald Archangel Award and the Irish Times Special Tribute Award for her outstanding contribution to Irish Theatre.Glen Hansard @Glen_Hansard
Glen Hansard is the celebrated principal songwriter and vocalist/guitarist for the The Frames. Whether busking the streets of Dublin, where he got his start, or headlining a gig, Hansard has garnered a reputation as an unparalleled frontman.Martin Hayes @MHayesmusic
Martin is regarded as one of the most extraordinary talents to emerge in the world of Irish traditional music. His unique sound, his mastery of his chosen instrument – the violin – his acknowledgement of the past and his shaping of the future of the music, combine to create an astonishing and formidable artistic intelligence. He performs with his long-time collaborator Dennis Cahill.Andy Irvine @andyk_irvine
Andy Irvine has enjoyed a long and successful career as a traditional Irish musician. He has travelled the world as a solo artist and as a member of legendary Irish groups such as Planxty and Patrick Street and more recently Mozaik.Tríona Marshall @trionamarshall
Tríona Marshall’s music has been hailed by critics as both sensitive and revelatory. Drawing from the centuries-old harp tradition, her performances are renowned for their depth, virtuosity and flair. Her years spent performing with orchestras and The Chieftains have brought her all over the world. However, it is as a soloist, summoning the spirit, people and places of her musical world, that the depth of her journey becomes most palpable.Hisham Matar @hishamjmatar
Libyan author Hisham Matar’s debut novel In the Country of Men was shortlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize. Matar’s essays have appeared in the Asharq Alawsat, The Independent, The Guardian, The Times and The New York Times. His second novel, Anatomy of a Disappearance, was published on 3 March 2011.Pankaj Mishra
Pankaj Mishra is an Indian essayist and novelist and a recipient of the 2014 Windham–Campbell Prize for non-fiction, who writes literary and political essays for the New York Times and the New York Review of Books, as well as influential pieces for The Guardian on ISIS.Mick Moloney
Mick Moloney combines the careers of folklorist, musicologist, arts presenter and advocate, professional musician, and professor of music and Irish studies. He has recorded and produced over forty albums of traditional music and acted as advisor for scores of festivals and concerts all over America.John Montague
John Montague was appointed the first Ireland Chair of Poetry in 1998. Recently he was made a Chevalier de la legion d’honneur. His epic The Rough Field (1972) is regarded as the seminal poem on the Irish Troubles.Paul Muldoon
Paul Muldoon is the author of twelve major collections of poetry, including One Thousand Things Worth Knowing, Maggot, Horse Latitudes, Moy Sand and Gravel, Hay and Why Brownlee Left. In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, he has received an American Academy of Arts and Letters award in literature and the 1994 T. S. Eliot Prize.Aoife Ni Bhriain @eefanivreen
Aoife Ní Bhriain is a fiddler who has won numerous competitions both classical and tradition including 7-All-Ireland Titles at the Fleadh Cheoil, ESB Feis Ceoil, Camerata and Ireland Young Musician of the Year Award in 2011. Most recently she won a TG4 Gradam Coil award, the most prestigious honour for Irish musicians for her input on the CD Tunes from the Goodman Manuscripts.Maighréad Ní Dhomhnaill
Maighréad Ní Dhomhnaill is an Irish traditional singer, known for her work with the short-lived, but very highly regarded Skara Brae and her collaborations with her sister Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill as well as other traditional musicians. Most recently she has recorded and performed with the West Ocean String Quartet and with her sister Triona, along with Moya Brennan, Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh are part of a new Celtic supergroup T with the Maggies, who released their most recent CD (2010).Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill
Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill has been a major influence in revitalizing the Irish language in modern poetry. She has won numerous international awards, including the O’Shaughnessy Award for Poetry and the American Ireland Fund Literary Award.Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill
With a career spanning three decades, Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill has played with Skara Brae, The Bothy Band, Relativity, Touchstone, Nightnoise and of course her sister Maighread. Her latest solo release is entitled The Key’s Within.Tim O’Brien @TimOBrienmusic
A singer of unusual clarity and originality, a self-taught multi-instrumentalist of rare ability, and an incisive songwriter, Tim O’Brien has, over the last 20 years, made a lasting mark on what some are calling “Americana” music through his innate musicianship and his wide-ranging tastes.Maura O’Connell @momaura
Maura O’Connell embodies many paradoxes: lead singer for De Danann, she was not a traditional Celtic singer; resident of Nashville, she is not American; collaborator with New Grass Revival, she is not a bluegrass performer. Nevertheless, O’Connell has made a name for herself on two continents as a superb singer.Iarla Ó Lionaird @iarlavox
The Sean-nos singer has forged an iconoclastic solo career and is a member of The Gloaming.Joseph O’Neill
Irish author Joseph O’Neill is best known for his acclaimed novels Netherland and The Dog and his family history, Blood Dark Track.Lisa O’Neill @OLisaoneill
Lisa O’Neill started writing songs and music at an early age in her native Ballyhaise, Co. Cavan, Ireland. She moved to Dublin, aged 18, to study music on a full time basis. Early on she was welcomed into the folk and traditional scene in pubs and venues around the city where her singular voice, witty lyrics and observations on modern Irish life gained her popularity and set her apart as a unique talent.Caoimhin Ó Raghallaigh
The solo hardanger innovator is one of the most exciting new traditional music artists working with The Gloaming, This Is How We Fly and his own solo projects.Cáit O’Riordan @rockyoriordan
Cáit O’Riordan is a Nigerian-born musician of Irish and Scottish descent. She played bass guitar for the London-Irish punk/folk band The Pogues from 1983 to 1986. She later played with Elvis Costello, her husband from 1986 to 2002, as well as several other projects. She is now a solo artist.Declan O’Rourke @declanorourke
The acclaimed Irish song-writer Declan O’Rourke is, according to Brendan Graham of Hot Press Magazine (2012) “not a songwriter within the ordinary definition of the word. He is a sorcerer of songs, with a Dickensian skill for finding the moment that details some aspect of our humanity”. The critical and commercial success he has achieved since the release of his debut album Since Kyabram has earned him plaudits from the likes of Snow Patrol, Kate Rusby and DJs Jonathan Ross and Edith Bowman, each of whom were rapturous in their praise of Declan’s deep-honey voice and astute song writing abilities.Kevin Rowland
Kevin Rowland and Dexys (Midnight Runners) are one of the great pioneers of English pop. From an Irish emigrant family background, Kevin Rowland has always drawn on this Irish musical heritage. From their number one singles Geno and Come on Eileen to their albums Searching for the Young Soul Rebels, Too-Rye-Ay, Don't Stand Me Down and One Day I’m Going to Soar, “their catalogue stands comparison with any British group” (The Guardian).Camille O’Sullivan @camilleos
Previously an award winning architect and painter, Irish-French Camille O'Sullivan is a singer/actress who enjoys a formidable international reputation for her unique dramatic interpretations of the narrative songs of Nick Cave, Brel, Waits, Bowie, Radiohead, Arcade Fire. The award-winning singer has stunned audiences around the world with 5-star sell-out performances.Tadhg O’Sullivan - Film Imaging @tadhgosullivan
Tadhg O'Sullivan is a filmmaker and sound designer whose work has screened internationally. His work has been supported by the Arts Council of Ireland, the Irish Film Board and a number of broadcasters. His most recent feature film, The Great Wall, an adaptation of Kafka that explores borders and power in Europe, is currently to be seen on the international film festival circuit after a successful Irish cinema run.Fintan O’Toole @fotoole
Fintan O'Toole is a columnist, literary editor and drama critic for The Irish Times. He has written for the paper since 1988. O'Toole was drama critic for the New York Daily News from 1997 to 2001 and is a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books.Ahdaf Soueif @asoueif
Egyptian author Ahdaf Soueif is an political & cultural commentator as well as the acclaimed author of the best-selling The Map of Love.Colm Tóibín
Colm Tóibín is the author of eight novels, including Brooklyn and Nora Webster, and two collections of stories. His work has been translated into more than thirty languages.The Tulla Céilí Band
The Tulla Céilí Band was founded in 1946 by Paddy Canny, fellow fiddler P.J. Hayes, pianist Teresa Tubridy, and accordion player Joe Cooley at Minogue's Bar in Tulla, County Clare.Usher’s Island
Usher’s Island sees the coming together of five of the most influential and acclaimed names in traditional Irish music: Andy Irvine and Dónal Lunny, both founding members of Planxty, Paddy Glackin a member of The Bothy Band, Mike McGoldrick member of Lunasa and Capercaillie and John Doyle who played with Solas.Adam Zagajewski
Adam Zagajewski first became known as one of the leading poets of the generation of ‘68’ or the Polish New Wave. He is one of Poland’s most famous contemporary poets. In 2010 he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.back to top
