Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) are delighted to report that a music research student Darren Culliney was shortlisted with his brother Cathal for the Molloy Award at the Trip to Birmingham Tradfest in the UK last month.

Darren is a Technological University Transformation Fund (TUTF) scholarship holder and is undertaking PhD research on the button accordion playing in Ulster under the supervision of Dr Daithí Kearney and Dr Verena Commins (University of Galway). He completed a music degree and MA in composition at Maynooth University.

Previous winners of the award include DkIT graduates Fiachra Meek and Ryan McAuley with the band Alfi in 2019.

The Molloy Award is a competition aimed at traditional Irish musicians in the UK and Ireland, aged 25 and under. In memory of Anne and Pat Molloy, who were important in passing on the tradition in Birmingham, the award strives to seek out new musical talent and award excellence and innovation within the idiom of Irish Traditional Music and Song and showcase it. Participants submit a recording of up to 12 minutes which are then listened to by two judges, often past artists or friends of the festival, who pick their five top acts. The judging criteria are musicality, originality, repertoire, technical ability, arrangement, ensemble playing.