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A Louth Lilt on the Road and in the Air

23 April 2018

A Louth Lilt, comprised of DkIT researchers Dr Adèle Commins and Dr Daithí Kearney, continue to develop their performance profile that engages with communities around the world.



In recent weeks they have facilitated workshops and performed at events in Portugal and Ireland, through which they draw together different facets of the research being undertaken in the Centre for Creative Arts Research at Dundalk Institute of Technology.

St Patrick’s Day is an important occasion for the celebration of Irishness all over the world. This year, at the invitation of Luisa Caiano, Director of the Curso de Música Silva Monteiro, Adèle and Daithí facilitated a professional development workshop for Portuguese music teachers on and performance of Irish traditional music at the historic music school in Porto. While in Porto, they met with other researchers including Porto-based Fadó singer and researcher Patricia Costa, who is undertaking studies in ethnomusicology at the University of Aveiro, to consider changing approaches to the study of traditional music in Higher Education.

The Easter teaching break allowed time for Adèle and Daithí to participate in a novel event in Youghal, Co. Cork, where they facilitated workshops involving local musicians and members of the Oriel Traditional Orchestra. The OTO, is a cross border community orchestra whose members come from Louth, Meath, Monaghan and Armagh and focus on repertoire from the region arranged especially for the orchestra. For the festival's gala concert on Saturday night local groups took to the stage for the first half and performed a selection that included 'Farewell to Carlingford' learned during a visit to Dundalk Institute of Technology last December and a specially commissioned piece composed by Adèle entitled 'Lighting Capel Island'. The concert also featured a number of other compositions by Adèle and Daithí, some of which feature on the 2017 album A Louth Lilt.

As performers, composers and pedagogues, Adèle and Daithí have developed their research in a rigorous academic manner but seek to disseminate it through means that are accessible and meaningful to communities locally and globally.


For more information, please contact:

Dr Daithí Kearney

E: daithi.kearney@dkit.ie (Ext. 2159)

OR Visit:

A Louth Lilt