Rathcoole musicians bid for Siansa prize
RATHCOOLE musicians Aoife Buckley and Leah Murphy who are members of the traditional group ‘Lonrach’, will perform at the National Concert Hall in the final of the Siansa Gael Linn music competition this Sunday, April 2.
This is a fantastic achievement for Aoife and Leah, as well as their musical director, Siobhan Buckley, also from Rathcoole, as only eight groups countrywide have been chosen to go forward to the final.
Lonrach, a well established group who have recently performed in Letterkenny and with John Spillane in Birr, also features Laois musicians Fiadh Fitzpatrick, Peter Bennett, Maeve Scott, Ellen Scott, David Scott, and Conall Nevin.
To enter the competition the musicians initially had to submit a recording of a 12 minute continuous set of four traditional tunes and the song ‘Seothin Seotho’. This was recorded by Mike Sheehan of Old Road Studios in Ballydesmond during the mid term break last autumn.
Subsequently, they performed in the semi-final in the Claregalway Hotel on February 10, and later took part in a workshop with Declan Masterson who is one of the adjudicators.
Siansa is one of Ireland’s most prestigious competitions for young traditional Irish music and singing groups. Organised by Gael Linn with support from RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta and Irish Music Magazine, Siansa provides a platform for talented teenage groups who aim to emulate groups such as Téada, Altan, Danú, Dervish etc. While Siansa is essentially a competition, the groups are helped and encouraged along the way by highly regarded traditional musicians. The event is run entirely through the medium of Irish.
Readers can tune into the Siansa Gael Linn final which will be broadcast live from the National Concert Hall, Dublin, on Sunday, April 2 at 7.30pm on Raidió na Gaeltachta.