Ennis Trad Festival Sunday Night Concert
Caoimhín Ó Fearghail, Seán Ó Fearghail, Brendan Clancy & Donnchadh Gough / Nell Ní Chróinín / Elaine Hogan & Sheila Garry
Sunday 9th of November 2025. The Old Ground Hotel Ennis. 9pm.
Caoimhín Ó Fearghail
Caoimhín Ó Fearghail is a multi-instrumentalist who comes from An Rinn in the Waterford Gaeltacht. A piper, flute player and accompanist, he is influenced by the many great traditional musicians and singers from his home area.
He has featured on a number of albums in recent years, quite often as accompanist. His latest album, however, is a solo pipes album simply called ‘Uilleann Piping from County Waterford’ which is part of NPU’s ‘Ace & Deuce of Piping’ series. He also recorded an album with fiddler Paddy Tutty in 2018 called ‘Flute & Fiddle’.
A frequent teacher and performer, he has taught and performed solo, and with groups such as Caladh Nua and Danú, all over Ireland, the US, the UK, Europe, Newfoundland and New Zealand.
Caoimhín was awarded Best Folk Instrumentalist in the 2021 RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards.
Seán Ó Fearghail
Seán Ó Fearghail is from An Rinn in the Waterford Gaeltacht.
He started playing the fiddle in primary school but it wasn’t long before he started to play the concertina and bouzouki as well. He has attended and taught at many music workshops around the country amongst them Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy and was greatly influenced by the music he heard. He has listened to and learnt from such great musicians as Tommy Peoples, Matt Molloy, Martin Hayes, Noel Hill and Bobby Gardiner.
He obtained his Masters from the Music Department in the University of Limerick in 2010. He now resides in Co. Limerick.
Brendan Clancy
Brendan Clancy; Fiddle/Banjo, hails from Stradbally, Co. Waterford and has been playing Fiddle & Banjo for over 25 years now. He learnt a lot of his Music by playing in many of the local sessions with many locally renowned musicians.
Brendan also played in a group with his brother Noel Clancy (Button Accordion & Melodeon) and his grandfather Tomás Clancy (RIP) on Mouthorgan.
He has also played and shared the stage with some of the top performers and bands in Irish Traditional Music, including; Seamie O’Dowd, Benny McCarthy, The Awbeg Ceilí Band, The Booley House, Donnchadh Gough, Mick McAuley and Ciarán Ó Gealbháin to name but a few.
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Nell Ní Chróinín
Nell Ní Chróinín hails from the Múscraí Gaeltacht of West Cork, where she grew up in the small village of Béal Áthá’n Ghaorthaidh. The Múscraí area is historically linked with a strong heritage of song and music and Nell was exposed to these local traditions from a very young age, which throughout her career has been the corner stone to her identity as an artist and a traditional Sean Nós singer.
Her immersion which had started at home continued in Primary and secondary school as a result of the singing scheme entitled ‘Scéim Amhránaíochta Aisling Gheal’ which aimed to preserve the local songs by teaching them to the younger generation of the area and encouraging them to sing them. Nell attended these classes from the age of 10 under the tuition of the wonderfully talented Máire Ní Chéilleachair with whom Nell accredits many of her successes. Máire would not only teach the songs, but also the history of the songs and would expose the class to some old recordings of local singers who were no longer with us. This spurred Nell’s interest in the singing massively and she began to sing publicly from the age of 11 at local festivals or sessions. She enjoyed success as a younger singer, including several underage singing medals and titles from various Irish festival competitions such as Oireachas na Samhna and The Fleadh Ceoil.
Her accomplishments at the Oireachtas festival blossomed as she won the prestigious Corn Uí Riada competition in 2014. This was a momentous win for Nell personally, as the youngest winner in the history of the competition at the time. It was however also a momentous for the wider Múscraí singing community as it was the first time any singer from her locality had won this accolade which was particularly significant as it was named after the local composer and highly acclaimed musician, Seán Ó Riada.
In 2012 she was the youngest ever recipient of the TG4 Gradam Ceoil Amhránaí na Bliana award to which she believes is one of her highest honours and achievements to date.
In 2016 she became the lead singer with the highly renowned traditional band, Danú. This for Nell was a change as she was so familiar with singing in the sean-nós style without accompaniment. This again helped her further develop as an artist, crafting her own voice while still be firmly rooted in tradition. She is thoroughly enjoying exploring singing in this different context and she recorded her first album with Danú in 2018, entitled Ten Thousand Miles. She regularly tours with the group in the USA.
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Elaine Hogan & Sheila Garry
Elaine Hogan – Harp
Elaine Hogan hails from Ennis in Co. Clare. She has grown up with a love for all types of music, but always felt a particular pull towards the Irish traditional world. She has toured extensively with her harp as part of various musical outfits, and is a regular performer and tutor at festivals both at home and abroad.She went on to obtain her Masters from the World Irish Academy of music and dance in Limerick and is a much sought after accompanist, featuring as a guest musician on many albums such as John Dwyer’s “The Dursey Sound” as well as releasing a duet album “The Shores of Lough Breda” in 2015 with fiddle player Sheila Garry. Elaine also released her solo album “ In Three Minds” in June of 2019, as well as a quartet album with other noted Clare musicians Pádraig Rynne, Tara Breen and Conor Crimmins called “Avalla”.
Sheila Garry – Fiddle
Sheila Garry comes from Ballynacally just outside Ennis and grew up in and around traditional Irish music. (Among her formative influences include fiddlers Vincent Griffin and Paula McMahon.) Her early interest in traditional music led her to University College Cork where she was the recipient of the Sean O’Riada memorial prize in 1998,and then went on to the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick where she earned a Master’s in Ethnomusicology. Since then, she’s been a past member of the Kilfenora Ceilí band and the Shannon Vale Ceilí band, worked at Bunratty Castle, and recorded for the “Baltimore Fiddle Fair” series and the “Riches of Clare” series.
Elaine and Sheila have released their latest album Two for Joy in May of this year, 10 years since their last recording together The Shores of Lough Breda. Two for Joy is an assortment of modern and traditional tunes, and features many of the compositions of Michael Dwyer, as well as some compositions from both Sheila and Elaine themselves.