Imelda May, Shane McGowan, Jerry Fish and various Waterboys guest on Sharon Shannon’s new album, ‘Saints and Scoundrels’ Eamon Carr interviews her for the Evening Herald.

Tony MacMahon was born in 1939 and grew up in the Turnpike in Ennis. His father, PJ, came from Kilmaley, not far from Miltown Malbay, and an area steeped in traditional music and dancing. His mother played the concertina. Joe Cooley, who worked in Ennis for several years was a regular visitor to the house. [...]

THE great Irish novelist John McGahern once said that he expected his characters were waiting for him to die off before taking on lives of their own. The accordeon music of Joe Cooley has taken on a life of his own since his death in 1973.
Joe Cooley was born into a musical family in Peterswell, [...]

One of the most influential accordion players in Irish traditional music, Paddy O’Brien was born in Newton, about five miles from Nenagh in County Tipperary, on February 10, 1922. His father, the fiddle player and accordionist Dinny O’Brien, led the famous Bridge Ceili Band. The fiddler Sean Ryan was a cousin.
Paddy took up the fiddle [...]

by Mac Entee
Widely regarded as one of the most gifted musicians of her generation, Sharon Shannon was born in the Village of Ruan near Corrofin in Co Clare. Her parents IJ and Mary were set dancers and the four children all play music: Sharon accordeon and fiddle, Mary (Bumblebees) banjo, Majella fiddle and Garry, flute [...]