This year's Canon Goodman Concert features a stellar line-up of some of our finest traditional musicians.
Dermot Byrne from Donegal has played accordion from the early age of four. A child prodigy, he learnt from some of the greatest Donegal fiddlers including Johnny Doherty, Con Cassidy, James Byrne and Tommy Peoples. He has recorded and performed with artists such as Dolly Parton, John Prine, Stephan Grappelli, Tim O'Brien, Alison Krauss and Paul Brady. His seemingly effortless playing, combined with great subtlety, makes him one of the great accordion players of his generation.
Dezi Donnelly hails from Manchester, home to one of the most vibrant traditional music scenes in these islands. Also a child prodigy, he has played the fiddle since the age of 7, was the All Britain Fiddle Champion by the age of nine and, by the age of 15, he had won the All Ireland Championship an astounding 5 times. He recorded his first album with lifelong musical collaborator Michael McGoldrick when they were both young teenagers. Dezi has played fiddle with many of the great Irish musicians including Stockton's Wing, Sharon Shannon and John Sheahan.
West Kerry guitarist and singer Tommy O'Sullivan has remained one of the hidden treasures of traditional Irish music for many years. He has toured throughout North America and Europe and has recorded albums with Sliabh Notes, Ashplant and a beautiful duet album with tonight's special guest Paddy Keenan
Paddy Keenan needs little introduction around these parts as many of us have fond memories of when he was a resident here for many years. He was a founder member of The Bothy Band, the band that forever changed the face of Irish traditional music, merging a driving rhythm section with traditional Irish tunes in ways that had never been heard before and Paddy's virtuosity on the pipes combined with the ferocity of his playing made him, in the opinion of many, its driving force. Bothy Band-mate Donal Lunny once described Paddy as "the Jimi Hendrix of the pipes".
He also holds the distinction of performing at our very first Canon Goodman Concert back in 2009. We're delighted to welcome him back and we think the Canon would be delighted as well.
The remarkable 19th century music-collector James Goodman, was rector in Skibbereen from 1867 and built this beautful church that opened in 1890. He was a canon of the Church of Ireland and Professor of Irish at Trinity College Dublin. However, he is now chiefly known as the compiler of an outstanding manuscript collection of some 2,300 mainly traditional tunes held in the Library of Trinity college. As a native of the Dingle area of West Kerry he spoke Irish from infancy. Soon he became attached to music as something between a hobby and an obsession. He sang the local songs, perhaps played the flute, and certainly became an accomplished performer on the uilleann, pipes. By 1866 he had compiled an exceptional manuscript collection of tunes which is remarkable especially for its traditional Irish content. These tunes, as he said, were partly 'taken down by myself as I heard them played by Irish pipers &c.', and partly drawn from other manuscripts and from printed sources.