Already there's a buzz about the new Irish Music Magazine Awards. On Tuesday, at the launch party, it was announced that the host for the awards presentation on July 15th would be Altan's Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh. The winners, determined from an Irish Music readers' poll, have already been announced. Several will perform on the awards night, including Sharon Shannon, [N O]up to here (best female traditional artist), Kieran Goss, (best contemporary male artist), Kate Rusby, and Sean Keane (best male folk artist).
There was a quick taster of the sessions to come when Ciaran O Gealbhain and Donnchadh Gough of Danu got up on Tuesday night. Brendan Burke was there representing Tocano Ireland, the sponsor of the awards which has long been involved in the Danish Grammys, while Robert Heuston, director of Irish Music magazine chatted to guests from the music industry. They included Peter Kenny, director of Grapevine; Shay Hennessy, chairman and Hugh Duffy, chief executive, of IMRO, the Irish Music Rights Organisation; David Caren, event consultant with Irish Music magazine and Ellen O'Hea, editor of Classical Music who is also head of publicity for the event.