Music Network presents a newly curated lineup featuring some of this island’s most original and inventive musicians.

This talented quartet of singers and instrumentalists will take us on a musical journey, blending traditional and contemporary music, taking both new and familiar melodies on unexpected journeys and presenting old songs in new ways.

Featuring Niamh Dunne and Seán Óg Graham from the highly acclaimed Beoga, whose collaborations with Ed Sheeran on ‘Galway Girl’ and ‘Nancy Mulligan’ have been streamed over a billion times. Niamh brings gorgeous vocals and fantastic fiddle playing to the quartet, while Seán adds extraordinary musicianship on both guitar and button accordion. Legendary whistle-player and creative force behind the iconic Deiseal, Cormac Breatnach completes the lineup alongside vocalist and harper Bróna McVittie, one of the most exciting and inspirational artists to have emerged in recent years. A new commission by Bróna will also feature as part of the programme.

Expect the unexpected in what promises to be an enthralling musical experience.

Niamh Dunne vocals/fiddle
Bróna McVittie vocals/harp/synthesizer/guitar
Cormac Breatnach whistles
Seán Óg Graham guitar/button accordion

Music Network is Ireland’s national music touring and development organisation, founded by the Arts Council in 1986. We make high quality live music accessible to communities throughout Ireland and help musicians to develop fulfilling careers, bringing musicians and listeners together through the magic of live performance.

About the Artists

Niamh Dunne is a very accomplished fiddle player and singer who is known for her unique traditional fiddle playing, folk- infused fiddle compositions and smoky warm vocal style.

Niamh released her first album of self-penned songs Tides in 2022 to critical acclaim and has performed with the well-known Dunne family for many years and on the world stage as a founding member of the renowned band Beoga.

Best known for their Irish fusion music, Beoga’s album How to tune a fish was shortlisted for a Grammy nomination in the Best Contemporary World Music Album category. In 2017. The band’s profile was further elevated through their writing and performances on Ed Sheeran’s ÷ album. They made numerous live appearances with Sheeran, including his headline Glastonbury performance in front of 100,000 people, and were the support act on his 2018 Irish stadium tour.

Dunne is also a long-standing member of The Karan Casey Band and has recorded extensively with Casey. She has vast experience as a composer and has performed her own compositions and songs at the The Proms in the Park with The Ulster Orchestra and with the RTÉ concert Orchestra in the National Concert Hall. As a composer, she has also collaborated with top Irish song writers including Stefanie Rainey, Foy Vance and Ryan McMullan.

Dunne is an activist and a founding member of Fairplé, a grassroots organisation for better gender balance and a fairer workplace for musicians and artists.

Press quotes

“**** Tides is a deeply considered and generously endowed collection of original songs. Unhurried, thoughtful solo collection full of heart and soul” (The Irish Times)

“Hailing from County Limerick, Niamh Dunne has a beautifully warm, smoky voice … she’s also a classically trained violinist whose smooth fiddling is a perfect addition to Beoga’s existing 4 piece lineup” HotPress

Seán Óg Graham has been playing music since the age of nine. Having developed an obsession in high school, he went onto study music at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick and has been playing professionally since.

Seán has recorded seven albums as a founder member of the world-renowned Beoga and has toured all over Europe, North America and Australia. Wall Street Journal describes Beoga as ‘the most exciting band to come out of Ireland this Century’. When the band performed on Ed Sheeran’s latest album ÷, it was Seán’s own composition ‘Minute 5’ that was instrumental in providing the musical backdrop to the global hit ‘Galway Girl’ which has been streamed over 800 million times on Spotify alone.

Seán is in high demand as a session guitar player on the folk/traditional music scene and has featured on over forty albums. He is also widely regarded as one of Ireland’s top button accordion players and has composed a vast number of tunes, over sixty of which have been recorded and feature heavily on Beoga’s award-winning albums.

He continues to compose, arrange and produce music on a daily basis in his own purpose built recording facility Bannview Studios. His wealth of experience in the recording studio has led to an increased demand in recent years for his engineering and production roles.

Seán has performed with such stellar artists as Lunasa, Liz Carroll, Karan Casey, Maura O’Connell, Flook, Natalie Merchant, Mairtín O’Conor Band, Duke Special and Ed Sheeran.

Press quotes

“Graham’s accompaniment throughout is imaginative” Siobhan Long, The Irish Times

“…Seán Óg Graham, a guitarist who maybe doesn’t get the credit he deserves. A man of few words, the Clint Eastwood of trad music, adds the nimblest accompaniment when required or propels the livelier tunes with the driving rhythm of a steam engine.” Robert Mc Millen, The Irish News

Acclaimed whistle player Cormac Breatnach is a founding member of the iconic band Deiseal, a ground-breaking trio whose half-improvised, jazz-influenced arrangements of traditional tunes showcased on their brilliant album The Long Long Note has had a notable impact on generations of young traditional musicians. Founded in 1993, Deiseal’s sound was new involving double bass, bouzouki and low whistle, a particular combination which allowed great space and fluidity in the music. The Irish Times described their music as “extraordinarily compelling” and referred to a “virtuosity that was breath taking”.

Breatnach’s playing can also be heard on more than fifty albums including Riverdance and his own solo albums Musical Journey, Music for Whistle & Guitar and Éalú. He has recorded on film soundtracks The Secret of Roan Inish, The War of the Buttons and Horse + Moondance as well as on award-winning TV programmes: Bringing It All Back Home, A River of Sound, Súlt and The Session. In his twenties, Breatnach was a member of Dónal Lunny’s Celtic Orchestra (1985) and later, Ó Riada Retrospective (1987). He collaborated with Máire Breatnach to form Méristem (1989 EP, with Niall Ó Callanáin and Steve White).

Other key collaborations include with Steve Cooney whom he has known and toured with for over thirty years, Bray-based guitarist Martin Dunlea (Music for Whistle & Guitar, 2000) and Sonamus (Music of Ireland: Irish & Baroque Music Meet, 2016). In 2018, Breatnach collaborated with Daire Bracken and Martin Tourish for his Whistleblower project/CD which he toured with the assistance of the Arts Council of Ireland. In 2019, also with the assistance of the Arts Council of Ireland/Northen Ireland, he devised Loco por Lorca: An Irish Celebration of the great Spanish poet with Irish poets and Spanish musicians.

Pioneering her own brand of cosmic folk Bróna McVittie both deftly reimagines traditional folk and crafts her own nature-inspired songs with a rich mix of ethnic and electronic instruments. Her debut solo album We Are the Wildlife, released in 2018, earned her a string of four-star reviews from MOJO, Uncut, The Guardian and The Independent. Her second album The Man in the Mountain followed in 2020 and immediately scored the much-coveted Folk Album of the Month spot in The Guardian. Later that year The Guardian’s Jude Rogers ranked it fourth in her 10 Best Folk Albums of 2020. In her words: “You’re put in the place of a bird navigating wide open landscapes, absorbing light, space and air. This is music that takes you on its wing, and gives you fresh visions”.

McVittie’s third album The Woman in the Moon was released in 2022 and the first single was launched during the 22^nd Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival at her sellout show in Belfast. “Bróna McVittie’s The Woman in the Moon is yet another pot of pure gold sitting at the end of her cosmic folk rainbow” wrote Fatea while The Guardian labelled the album “Energising” and The Sunday Times described the album as “Eerie and alluring”. The subsequent tour in late 2022 saw her headline venues in five major UK cities. McVittie recorded the album with support from the National Lottery and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

“What Bróna McVittie has achieved on The Woman in the Moon is quite remarkable. She has found a way to focus the broad musical sound worlds that have inspired her, to reach listeners in new and unexpected ways.” Folk Radio UK

“One of the most interesting singer songwriters to emerge from the contemporary Celtic folk scene” Pennyblack Music on The Woman in the Moon

“McVittie’s voice is clear, hypnotic and uncannily timeless, floating between Broadcast’s Trish Keenan and Clannad’s Moya Brennan. A fantastic, exploratory record that draws you in” ★★★★ Jude Rogers on The Man in the Mountain