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Dundalk IT Students support top Trad artists at Dundalk Gaol

13 February 2017

Mayo accordion player David Munnelly brings his band to Dundalk for an exciting concert at the Oriel Centre Dundalk Gaol on Saturday 10 February at 8pm when students from the BA (Hons) Applied Music programme at DkIT will provide support.

David Munnelly (accordion) from Mayo is widely regarded as one of the most influential Irish accordion players of his generation: he has played with legendary Irish bands De Dannan and The Chieftains, and for 15 years fronted The David Munnelly Band. In recent years, his skills as a composer and arranger have come to the fore and David now works on a wide variety of music projects, ranging from the multi-award winning pan-European accordion five-piece Samurai, and duo McGowan Munnelly  through his experimental solo compositions, to the high-energy traditional Irish band Mórga.

Shane McGowan (Guitar) comes from an area in south Sligo known as lavagh. He comes from a musical family and started at an early age, giving his first public performance at the age of 5. His father, Harry is a well-known flute player from the area and was a big influence on him teaching him whistle and flute. Shane started playing guitar in his teens and was very interested in playing Irish music as well as rock, swing and Jazz. He joined Dave and the band in June 2010. Other bands he has guested and toured with are Lunasa, Zakir Hussain, Sean and Dolores Keane, Blas, Slide, Geraldine Mc Gowan, John Carty, At the Racket, among others. 

Joseph McNulty (fiddle) began to play traditional Irish music at a competitive level at a young age and by the age of 14 had won five all-Ireland tittles and four world titles. Most recently Joseph has toured with Ragús in mainland Europe and has spent time working in the National Folk Theatre of Ireland. He also teaches both fiddle and bodhrán and spends much of the summer teaching in summer schools passing on his love and understanding of Irish music.



The Old Reliables is a group of students from the BA (Hons) Applied Musicat Dundalk Institute of Technology. Button accordion player Joanne Cusackfrom Swords began playing the button accordion with Kinsealy CCÉ where she now directs the young céilí bands. She was the 2015 Leinster Senior Button Accordion Champion.Martha Guiney is a flute and tin whistle player from Co. Down. In 2012 she released an album The Guiney SistersEllie Níc Fhionnghaile is a traditional fiddle player and singer from Glencolmcille, Co. Donegal who recently performed at the headline concert in Cairdeas na bhFidiléirí’s Glenties Fiddle Weekend Festival. Multi-instrumentalist Brianna Madden from Cavan is button accordion teacher with the JJ Gardiner CCÈ in Dundalk. Fiddle player and guitarist Conor Walsh also performs regularly with Dublin based alt-rock band Versive whose 2016 single ‘Pretend’, championed two positions in the Irish iTunes Chart (#7 in the Top 200 Alternative and #54 in the Top 200 All Genres).  All members of the group have toured internationally including performances in America, Brazil and Scotland with the DkIT Ceol Oirghialla Traditional Music Ensemble, as well as closer to home in the Mansion House, Stormont Buildings and Birr Castle.

For further information on this and other concerts at Dundalk Gaol see www.orielcentre.ie
For further information on opportunities in music at Dundalk Institute of Technology see https://www.dkit.ie/creative-arts-media-music