The Way It Is – 23/12/2019

I had the pleasure of sitting in for Sue Nunn on The Way It Is. As we were up on the eve of Christmas we turned towards music and stories for the last programme in 2019. One of out guest artists on the night were a group of Kilkenny based musicians called Gaeltacht Kilkenny.

They are an exciting, spirited group of traditional musicians from the city and county of Kilkenny who are fast making a name for themselves in traditional musical circles. As their name suggests, they are steeped in the Irish tradition and language but theirs is a music which exists in the here and now.

All teenagers, they came together to form the group, bringing with them a love of music and the Irish language and a desire to explore, compose and perform. They work with Gráinne Ní Ailinn and Seathrún Ó’Casaide as their mentors but the members put in the hard work themselves to bring a polished highly performance. They’ve appeared at Kilkenny TradFest in 2019 and had their own highly successful concert at Cleere’s Theatre, Kilkenny in April of that year. Martin Bridgeman of KCLR described that night as being akin to being in the Cavern Club for The Beatles first headline appearance.

They’ve recorded a song in praise of Kilkenny hurling, “Dubh Agus Omra” (Black and Amber, as Gaeilge) and were selected to perform live in RTE’s “Up For The Match” where they found a highly receptive audience.Their next event is to play at the legendary Set Theatre in Kilkenny on January 31st, where they hope to record their live performance as their second release.

They joined us in the studio for a set of seasonal (multilingual) music.

They could not all be there on the night but the full lineup is:

Lia Nic Chonraí (fliút)
Fionn Ó Duibhir (Bosca Ceoil)
Sadhbh Ní Chasaide (Fidil ,Vox)
Noah Schneider (Double bass, Vox)
Iseult Ní hUaithne (Fidil)
Siofra Ní Chasaide (Fliút ,Vox)
Eoin Conraí (Djembe)
Ruairi Ó Casaide (Píob, Mandolin)
Oisin Conrai (Guitar, Dord)
Éanna Ó Casaide (Píob, Piano)

Gael