WHAT’S in a name? Quite a lot for some musicians it seems, after a spat between two of the founding members of trad supergroup De Dannan erupted into a public row as some of Ireland’s best-known musicians insulted each other on the airwaves. Alec Finn, who founded the band along with fiddler Frankie Gavin, sent [...]

Frankie Gavin was born in Corrandulla, on the eastern side of Lough Corrib in County Galway, in 1956. There was a lot of music in the family. His father played the fiddle. His mother, Mary Crehan from Ballygar, and her brothers all played music on either fiddle or accordeon. His brother Sean plays the accordion [...]

Described memorably by Nanci Griffith as “the voice of Ireland,” Dolores Keane has an earthy and instantly recognisable singing style.
She was born in Castlehackett, Co. Galway on September 26, 1953. It was not unusual then in a large family for a child to be brought up by close relatives. So Dolores was raised from the [...]