Bhí pósadh mór i Béal Átha’n Ghaorthaidh on Friday when celebrated local singer Nell Ní Chróinín married fellow teacher and musician Mick Foley - and the village was en fete
MÚSCRAÍ sean nós singer Nell Ní Chróinín was barely finished a tour, which included gigs in London as well as all over Ireland, before she headed home to Béal Átha’n Ghaorthaidh to marry her fiancée, fellow teacher and musician, Mick Foley on Friday.
The two met in Kikenny where Nell had been teaching but the wedding ceremony was in Seipéal Naomh Fhionnbarra in the Gaeltacht village was attended by musicians and singers from the locality and from all over Ireland.
A daughter of Teddy and Síle Úí Chróinín, who hails from Cúil Aodha, Nell has toured Ireland and internationally since winning Corn Uí Riada in 2014.
She sings regularly with the internationally acclaimed trad super group Danú and with other groups such as the Raw Bar Collective.
Her husband, Mick Foley from Kilkenny, is also a musician, an accomplished uileann piper.
Her uncle, An tAthair Peadar Ó Cróinín, officiated at the wedding and Cór Chúil Aodha, comprising mainly of her relatives the Ó Riordáin and Meachair families from Cúil Aodha on the day, sang during the ceremony.
Being a Múscraí wedding the festivities lasted the entire weekend with the reception at the Rochestown Park Hotel, owned by Johnny Ó Liatháin, a noted singer himself.
Ireland’s highest pub, the Top of Coom, a haunt of musicians and singers and where Nell sang many times herself, was the place to be on Saturday afternoon for further wedding festivities for friends and family.