Harps Alive | An Chruit Bheo
2025-09-06 - 2025-09-12 | Co. Donegal
Harps Alive| An Chruit Bheo takes place Sept 6-14th in Limerick, Tralee, Castlebar, Dublin and Wexford.
Sept 8th – 14th
Harp exchange between Coolcappa National School Limerick and St Johnʼs Parochial School Tralee with harper Niamh OʼBrien
Try your Hand on Harps; harper Fiana Ní Chonaill in partnership with Irish Chamber Orchestra Music Education project at St. Mary’s Limerick and Southhill
Hands on Harps with Luke Webb at Various schools in North Dublin Shools
Harping Fun: A Harp, Storytelling, Drama and Singing Workshop for children with Sharon Carroll at Loreto Primary School Wexford.
Saturday 6th Sept
Try your Hand on Early Irish Harp with Eibhlis Ní Riordáinat Pearse St Library and Greystones Library.

Saturday 13th Sept
Hugh Higgins: A Mayo Harper and his Music by harper Laoise Kelly at National Library of Ireland.

Sunday 14th Sept at Linen Hall Art Centre, Castlebar
Harps Alive|An Chruit Bheo: Music Generation Harp Collective together with renowned harpers, Michael Rooney, Gráinne Hambly, Gráinne Meyer, Cormac de Barra and Aisling Lyons
Saturday 20th Sept in the Sugar Club
Sugar Club Harp Sessions: Úna Monaghan, Éanna Monaghan and Paddy Glackin in concert.

Reverb by Luail, featuring Lisa Canny
2025-09-11 00:00 - 2025-10-05 00:00 (Europe/Dublin) | Multiple Locations
Movement and melody collide in an electrifying celebration of legacy, live music, and movement by choreographer Sarah Golding with music by multi-instrumentalist Lisa Canny. This high-energy performance combines powerful physicality with spellbinding vocals and composition, exploring the ways in which our actions ripple through time and leave their mark.
With Canny’s signature mix of traditional and modern sounds driving the dancers, every beat tells a powerful story, blending past and present in a raw, emotional experience. Get ready for a performance where rhythm lives, tradition breathes, and every moment and movement resonates.
Choreography: Sarah Golding
Cast: Luail Company Dancers
Composer: Lisa Canny
Musicians: Josh Sampson, Laura Doherty & Lisa Canny
Stage Design: Katie Davenport
Lighting Design: Ciaran Bagnall
Costume Design: Laura Fajardo Castro

TOUR DATES

11th September 2025 – Civic Theatre, Tallaght

12th September 2025 – Civic Theatre, Tallaght

17th September 2025 – The Market Place Theatre & Arts Centre, Armagh

19th September 2025 – An Táin Arts Centre, Dundalk

22nd September 2025 – Backstage Theatre, Longford

24th September 2025 – Riverbank Arts Centre, Newbridge

30th September 2025 – Hawk’s Well Theatre, Sligo

02nd October 2025 – The Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar

10th October 2025 – Lime Tree Theatre, Limerick Presented by Bualadh Bos Children’s Festival

Hugh Higgins: A Mayo Harper and his Music with harper Laoise Kelly
2025-09-13 14:30 - 15:30 | National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2, Ireland
Join acclaimed harper Laoise Kelly for an afternoon exploring the life and legacy of Hugh Higgins, the blind harper from County Mayo who was one of eleven harpers to perform at the landmark 1792 Belfast Harp Festival. In this lecture, Laoise Kelly sheds light on Higgins’ musical style, his place within the harping tradition, and the tunes attributed to him in the early collections of Edward Bunting, who transcribed many of the tunes performed at the festival. This is a rare opportunity to delve into the story of one of Ireland’s tradition-bearers, brought to life and performed by one of today’s most celebrated harpers.
Date: 13th September
Time: 2:30pm – 3:30pm
Venue: Joly Theatre, National Library of Ireland

Harps Alive | An Chruit Bheo at The Linenhall Castlebar
2025-09-14 17:00 - 19:00 | Linenhall Arts Centre, Linenall Street, Knockthomas, Castlebar, Co. Mayo, F23 AN24, Ireland
Join us for an evening of music that brings together some of Ireland’s finest harpers in a celebration of tradition, creativity, and connection. Experience the artistry of Mayo’s own Gráinne Hambly alongside Aisling Lyons, Gráinne Meyer, Cormac de Barra, and Michael Rooney, joined by Castlebar favourites, the Music Generation Harp Collective. Together they will create a vibrant blend of sound, tradition, and creative exchange, highlighting the harp as a living symbol of connection.
Date: Sunday 14th September
Time: 5:00pm
Venue: The Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar

The Ploughing Championships
2025-09-17 | Screggan, Screggan, Tullamore, Co. Offaly, Ireland
The Triad Harp Trio: Rachel Duffy, Fiona Gryson and Síofra Ní Dhubhghaill
All three harpers will be performing throughout the day and will be facilitating ‘Hands on Harps’ where attendees will have the opportunity to try out the harp. We will be set up in the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport Marquee on Wednesday September 17th.

The Sugar Club Harp Sessions | Úna Monaghan, Éanna Monaghan & Paddy Glackin
2025-09-20 20:00 - 22:00 | The Sugar Club, 8 Leeson Street Lower, Dublin, D02 ET97, Ireland
The Sugar Club Harp Sessions feature the most exciting harpers – some with friends – who are pushing the boundaries of Irish harping.
Our Sugar Club Harp Sessions concert on Saturday 20th September features Úna Monaghan, Éanna Monaghan and Paddy Glackin.
Renowned harper, composer and sound artist Úna Monaghan blends harp and electronics in a performance featuring a compelling range of works from two decades of exploration involving motion sensors, processed harp, synthesis, tape pieces, samples, improvisation, and Irish traditional music. Úna is joined by bassoonist Éanna Monaghan and fiddle player Paddy Glackin. Together, they showcase the sound world and character of these instruments, performing excerpts from Úna’s unique large-scale work on Hurling, and a new composition for harp, bassoon, fiddle, and electronics.
Belfast born Úna Monaghan is a harper, composer, researcher and sound artist working in Ireland and internationally. She collaborates, improvises and performs with poets, visual artists, computers, writers, musicians, and others. Úna also works as a sound engineer specialising in Irish traditional music, and experimental, live electronic and multichannel music worldwide. She has released two albums of her compositions, most recently Aonaracht, for solo traditional musicians and electronics. Úna received the inaugural Liam O’Flynn Award from the Arts Council of Ireland and the National Concert Hall Dublin and also held the Rosamund Harding Research Fellowship in Music at Newnham College, University of Cambridge from 2016-2019. She is a lecturer in Sound and Music at Queen’s University Belfast, where her research examines the intersections between Irish traditional music, experimental music practices, improvisation and interactive technologies.
Éanna Monaghan is a bassoonist from Belfast, currently based in London. He has studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music, the Royal Academy of Music in London, and with Valentino Zucchiatti in Milan. He enjoys an international performance career working with the BBC Concert Orchestra, English National Opera, the BBC Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestras, English Touring Opera and the London Contemporary Orchestra. Additionally, he works regularly in Ireland, performing with the Ulster Orchestra, Camerata Ireland, Irish National Opera, Irish Chamber Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra. As a chamber musician, he is a member of The Belfast Ensemble. He has received awards from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Music Network.
Fiddle player Paddy Glackin is from Dublin. His father, Tom, was from County Donegal and was a noted fiddler who had a significant influence on Paddy’s style. Paddy has also been inspired by John Doherty, the Donegal travelling fiddle player and by others such as John Kelly, Tommy Potts and Pádraig O’Keeffe. Paddy was senior all-Ireland champion fiddle player at Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann at age nineteen. He was a member of the traditional music group ‘Seachtar’ and then of ‘The Bothy Band’ in the 1970s. He was also a member of ‘Ceoltóirí Laighean’ recording two albums with them. Having spent some time as Traditional Music Officer with the Arts Council, he moved to broadcasting with RTÉ. Although his preference is for solo playing, he has joined forces with numerous musicians such as Paddy Keenan, Dónal Lunny, Robbie Hannan and Mícheál Ó Domhnaill and has also recorded with John Cage and Jolyon Jackson. His first solo album ‘Glackin: Ceol ar an bhFidil’ was released in 1977 and he was the recipient of the TG4 Gradam Ceoil Musician of the Year award in 2022. Paddy was awarded an honorary Doctorate from UCD in 2022.
Tickets available at www.eventbrite.ie/

Harps in Castles - Kathleen Loughnane, Catriona Cannon, Cormac Cannon and Máirín Ní Dhonnchadha
2025-09-25 19:30 - 21:30 | Claregalway Castle, Claregalway, Galway, H91 E9T3, Ireland
Rooted in the living traditions of Irish music and poetry, this special evening brings together some of Ireland’s most respected voices and musicians.
Kathleen Loughnane is celebrated for her evocative arrangements of traditional Irish music and her pioneering research into historic Irish harper composers. A founding member of Dordán, she has toured internationally and released six acclaimed albums.
Catriona Cannon, harper and archivist, blends her classical training with a wide range of influences, having toured Europe with reggae band Intinn and collaborated across genres.
Cormac Cannon, uilleann piper and whistle player, carries forward the piping traditions of the West with soulful ornamentation, rhythmic lift, and a deep reverence for the old style.
Adding a powerful voice of scholarship and poetry, Máirín Ní Dhonnchadha, Poet and Professor of Old and Middle Irish and Celtic Philology at NUI Galway, will recite on the night.
Together, they weave music, words, and history into an evening that honours Ireland’s cultural roots. This promises to be a night not to be missed.

Celebrating the Early Harp with Maria Cleary and Tara Viscardi
2025-09-27 19:30 - 21:30 | Saint Mary’s Cathedral Limerick
Join us for an unforgettable evening of harp music in the historic surroundings of St. Mary’s Cathedral, featuring two exceptional harp players, Maria Christina Cleary and Tara Viscardi, in a celebration of early harp music from the European and Irish traditions.
Dublin born Maria Christina Cleary is a world-renowned pioneer of period harp performance, praised for her virtuosity, improvisation, and basso continuo artistry. With a career spanning international solo appearances and collaborations with leading early music ensembles, Maria brings centuries-old harp traditions vividly to life.
Tara Viscardi, hailing from the Beara Peninsula, is an award-winning harper whose performances combine Irish traditional, classical, and baroque influences. A 2024 UK Harp Association Emerging Artist, she has played on some of the world’s most prestigious stages, from Wigmore Hall to the World Harp Congress.
Across the evening, Maria and Tara will each perform a selection from the repertoire of the early harp, offering audiences a rare chance to experience the early harp’s expressive range in the soaring acoustics of the stunning St. Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick.
Date: Saturday 27th September
Time: 7:30pm
Venue: St. Mary’s Cathedral, Bridge Street, Limerick, Ireland, V94 E068
