Music

The weeks’ best trad gigs: From Tony MacMahon to John Spillane

Clare accordionist hosts Liberty Hall gathering; Cork man toasts life’s minor triumphs

Tony MacMahon

Siobhán Long's face
Siobhán Long
Sat Apr 13 2019 - 03:00

WEDNESDAY APRIL 17

Tony MacMahon Concert

The Clé Club, Liberty Hall 7.30pm €5, cleclub.wikifoundry.com

The Clé Club, celebrating the 80th birthday of Clare accordionist, broadcaster and provocateur Tony MacMahon, hosts a gathering of his many admirers and friends. The evening will feature Peader Ó Riada, John Kelly, Eamon McGivney, Seán Keane, Peter Browne, Paddy Glackin, The Dublin Lasses, Cormac Begley and many other musicians and singers. With the inimitable Mick O’Connor on fear an tí duty, ably assisted by Des Geraghty.

THURSDAY 18

Backwest

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Bewley's Café Theatre 6.45pm €15 087-2547574

Galway band featuring fiddle player and singer Maureen Browne, accordion player Brendan Browne, percussionist and dancer Peter Vickers and guitarist and singer Fabian Joyce. Guests of Gael Linn’s monthly intimate tea time session, Bewley’s @6!

Kind Friends Lend An Ear

Na Píobairi Uilleann, Henrietta St 8pm €10/€5 pipers.ie

Fergus Woods presents a lecture and performance on the theme of collecting folk songs and stories in Co Monaghan and beyond. Another instalment in Na Píobairí Uilleann’s monthly Notes & Narratives series.

FRIDAY 19

John Spillane

DC Music Club, 20, Camden Row 9pm €14 musiclee.ie

Singer-songwriter and broadcaster for whom his sense of home (his beloved Cork) infuses his music to its core. John Spillane has written songs for what seems like everyone in the Irish folk music community, from Christy Moore to Sinéad Lohan, Karan Casey and Seán Keane, and his own material, some of it bilingual, is a celebration of life’s minor triumphs. So dancing cherry trees, Dunnes Stores girls and roads to local towns are every bit as important as wounded heroes.