Saoirse comes back to Tourlestrane to perform
An internationally renowned band with strong connections to south Sligo are set to play at the Coleman Centre in Gurteen this Friday night.
Saoirse, a dynamic band based in Melbourne, are a fivepiece band and have roots in south Sligo. Sile Coleman, one of the five members of Saoirse, is daughter of Gemma Feeley, a native of Tourlestrane.
They have been performing at major festivals and functions in Australia for the past ten years, and this year an invitation to play at the Festival Interceltique de Lorient 2016 in France prompted their first European tour.
They start their tour in Ireland, and will bring their mix of traditional and contemporary work around the continent. They are renowned for their soaring harmonies and powerful instrumentals, and they promise to get the audiences hands clapping. It is a second visit to south Sligo for both Sile and her husband Damien Neil this year, after they played a house concert at Moy River B& B last January.
“I personally spent all of my childhood holidays in Dawros, Tourlestrane and if I could retire home it would be the place I would pick for certain,” Sile says.
“Myself and my husband, Damien Neil, performed a house concert at Pat’s Moy River B& B in January just after we got married at home, it was a lovely night of music and although we were only two parts of the whole band, I feel people left with a smile and a warm heart.”
The Coleman Centre is the only venue in the west of Ireland which Saoirse will visit during their European Tour. After Friday’s gig, they play Whelan’s in Dublin on Sunday before heading north to Belfast to play on Wednesday evening.