GLÓR NUA- BEALTAINE: HUARTAN + CAOIMHÍN

HUARTAN + CAOIMHÍN 

Discover a fresh and vibrant wave of new music with HUARTAN, and CAOIMHÍN

Join us at The Irish Cultural Centre for an exhilarating evening of new Irish music, featuring HUARTAN -Winners of NI Music Prize 2024 Live Act of the Year, and the Gradaim Nós 'Newcomer of the Year' award, A Belfast based, high energy, Tradtronica group who sing in the Irish language, taking ancient and endangered Irish traditional songs and put them in the context of electronic dance music to share them with a modern audience. Huartan is a word from the Ogham language meaning ‘the magical tool of the Hawthorn tree’ which embodies ‘horror and harmony’. Our second act is CAOIMHÍN -  He is a producer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist who blends Gaelic melodies with electronic beats. In February 2025, his 5 track EP ‘Ceantar + Alltar’ was nominated for contemporary album of the year at the NÓS music awards.

There will be foyer music from 5.30pm with some of London's finest traditional Irish musicians. 

Thu 01 May 2025

Doors: 7.00pm; Starts: 7.30pm

Tickets: £15 (Early bird tickets: £12, active until Friday 7th March)

This will be a standing concert, with seats available around the sides of the auditorium if needed. 

About HUARTAN:

Winners of NI Music Prize 2024 Live Act of the Year, Belfast-based 'tradtronica' collective Huartan has been breathing new life into ancient words and melodies. This dynamic ensemble consists of three Irish traditional musicians: Catriona Ní Ghribín, Múlú, and Stiofán Ó Luachrain, who also serves as the band’s producer. Their mission is to reintroduce contemporary audiences to the oral singing tradition and native language of Ulster. In a playful re-imagining and rousing reclamation of pagan Ireland, the Huartan live show is immersive and otherworldly, featuring dancers, Mícheal Ó Cóighligh and Anan Poloni, who embody the unsettling presence of the síogaí (fairies/shapeshifters). Their first release is ‘Bean Udaí Thall’ [pronounced: Bahn-addy-hal] (‘The Woman Yonder’) . Revitalising one of the oldest Irish-language murder ballads, it tells the story of two sisters, one of whom drowns the other in a fit of jealousy. Featuring haunting vocals and droning synths in hypnotic repetition, ‘Bean Udaí Thall’ seamlessly blends electronica with traditional singing, winning Huartan the inaugural Amhrán na Laoch competition by
HotPress.

Winners of the Gradaim Nós 'Newcomer of the Year' award

'Huartan have been one of the key voices in a serious 'realignment' of modern Irish music
and culture'. -HotPress
‘When you hear Huartan, you start to wonder why people haven’t been putting traditional
music and electronica together more' - Dig with it

Members of the group:

Stiofan Ó Luachráin
Stiofán is a Belfast based musician and producer. As a young adult he became active in Belfast’s thriving session scene and later became a member of Lonesome George withwhom he toured extensively and  recorded 2 albums. He was also a founding member of the reggae-fusion band Abhainn Bhearra who were nominated as best newcomer at the Gradam Nós awards 2018. As a session musician he has performed, toured and recorded with Clare Sands, Niall Hanna, The Muddlers Club, The Real Shin Dig, The Hootin Annies and many others, and is a featured artist on Kneecap’s award-wining new album. He was the musical director of the Irish Entertainment Group and Belfast Beo and co-produced shows with Ciaran Connolly (Belfast Rhythms and Tales), Gráinne Holland (Scéalta Tuatha De Dannan and Damhsa De Dannan) and Artsekta (Little Amal). His most recent project, Huartan, has taken the Irish music scene by storm and has already won several accolades including Best Emerging Artist at the Gradam Nós awards and Best Live Act at the NI Music Prize. 

Múlú
A soulful new voice in Irish music. MÚLÚ (Miadhachlughain O’Donnell) is a 25 year-old singer and multi-instrumentalist from Castlewellan, Co. Down. She is a fluent Irish speaker with a great interest in curating and performing songs in Irish, and also a keen interest in the folk song tradition. As a solo artist, she accompanies her voice with the shruti box – an Indian instrument similar to the harmonium – and sings traditional Irish songs in their language of origin. She is also a flute player (an All-Ireland champion at the age of 15) and adds this her repertoire when performing with her trio. Múlú’s family, the McSherrys, have a history in Irish traditional music dating back to the 1980s. Her mother Tíona McSherry (flute, vocal), uncles John (uilleann pipes) and Paul (guitar) and auntie Jo (fiddle) recorded and toured internationally as Tamalin into the mid-90s. Múlú has been influenced by many great Irish singers including Cathy Jordan (Dervish),Padraigín Ní Uallacháin, Lasairfhíona, Albert Fry and Emma Ní Fhíoruisce. In January 2023, she launched her debut EP (physical/digital) Sásta a bheith anseo (Happy to Be Here), with accompaniment from Myles McCormack, Joe Campbell McArdle and Tommy Moynagh. Her EP has since been nominated for best new release GRADAIM NÓS, aswell as a few other nominations for best artwork and best emerging  artist. Múlú has spent the last year not only touring with her own group, but with new tradtronica group HUARTAN, 11 piece female band BIIRD and also as a new member of Afro Celt Sound System. ‘In a darkening world, Múlú is a little ray of sunshine through ancient forest leaves. Her music is soulful and deep, playful and real, summoning the magic of Tolkien’s nature spirit Tom Bombadil – older than measurable time but here and now, a reconnection with the earth itself and a way of being we may have lost in the rush for whatever it is we’re all rushing for. I’m proud to know her.’ Colin Harper, author of Dazzling Stranger: Bert Jansch and the British folk and blues revival (Bloomsbury, 2000).

Catriona Ní Ghribín
Catriona Ní Ghribín is a multi-instrumentalist and singer from the Gaeltacht of Northwest Donegal. Now living in Belfast, she is immersed in the vibrant music scene, gigging and touring extensively with her bands; the trailblazing Huartan, The Brigideens and Lonsome George, and has recently performed several gigs with The Mary Wallopers. Having grown up immersed in the Irish language, music and culture, and performing and touring with An Crann Óg, Catriona is dedicated to preserving and promoting the Irish language through her work and has a keen interest in disseminating the songs that are at-riskwithin the tradition. Throughout her Masters in Research she focused on collecting lesser-known songs from the Donegal Gaeltacht that were of extinction due to lack of documentation. She collected 20 of these songs, documented the lyrics in new Irish (as opposed to sean-chló), transcribed musical notation from old recordings and documented local stories from each song. Several of these songs have been recorded on her Bandcamp album. A prominent news article was written about this project in 2023. BBC new article- Catriona Gribben . In 2023, Catriona became a Gradam Ceoil TG4 bursary recipient, this prestigious award brought opportunities incl. gigs at TG4 production of Gradaim Ceoil in Limerick and support act for Máirtín O’Connor Trio in The Empire and workshops/masterclasses with her biggest influences in music. In 2024 Catriona was chosen as a UNESCO musician to represent Belfast at the ‘Melting Pot’ festival in Brno Czech Republic. Recent awards for Huartan include, Live Act of the Year 2024 with Ni Music Prize, Newcomer of the Year 2024 with Gradaim Nós and Hotpress and Gael Linn award for Amhrán na Laoch with ‘Bean Udaí Thall’. Catriona has worked on several commissions the soundtrack of the acclaimed Bad Bridget podcast series, presented by Siobhan MacSweeney. She then went on to make the creative immersive soundscapes for the Bad Bridget museum exhibition at the American Folk Park, Omagh. Other commissions include a composition piece for ‘Coirm’ trad orchestra with Regional Cultural Centre Letterkenny. Since moving to Belfast, Catriona’s music has become more risk averse and more taken by improvisation and working with other musical genres with her bands. In this vein, she has performed for The Improv Community’s digital ‘Improv Fest’ as a ‘Neural Art Trio’ with Franziska Shroeder (Improviser/Saxophonist) and Glenn Marshall (Artificial Intelligence Artist) and is now embarking on a new solo experimental project on the accordion. With all this experience, Catriona is now undertaking a PHD which explores the oral tradition of indigenous song and how the tradition is growing out of its boundaries by latching onto other genres. Her study explores movement, gender, the pagan resurgence within traditional music and how this is linked with anti-capitalism. Catriona’s musical influences are: Altan, Moya Brennan, Julie Fowlis, Neil Martin, Martin Tourish, Pauline Oliveros. 

Anna Poloni
Dr Anna Poloni is a visual anthropologist, ethnographer, artist, and dancer. After completing their PhD at the University of Oxford in 2023, Anna stepped into the world of Huartan as a mask-maker and later as one of the siogaí, the fairy folk. Offstage, they are busy shaping  Huartan’s visual narrative, coordinating a diverse team of artists to develop the group’s rich and immersive aesthetic. These collective efforts include the work of illustrator/animator Cian Hogan, curator and interdisciplinary artist Lindsay Merlihan, graphic designer Betsy Bailie, and screen-printer/costume designer Lily Bailie.

Micheál Ó’Coigligh
Micheál Ó’Coigligh is an artist, choreographer, director of his own dance collective & events/entertainment manager. Micheál graduated with a BA Hons in Dance (Urban Practice) from the University of East London. Micheál has been choreographing for 14+ years, awarded many titles in Ireland, where he eventually returned opening a movement studio for artists, dancers, public, etc to develop their skills, providing teaching for their art with the focus on community and wellbeing
Micheál was also the Director for Hip Hop International Ireland for 6 years. The HHI franchise has 54+
countries affiliated; providing a platform within their country for dancers to compete for the chance to represent in Micheál’s case Ireland at the World Hip Hop Dance Championships held in the USA. This is most prestigious Hip Hop Dance competition globally. This catapulted Micheál into Event/Entertainment management where he found his love for the behind-the-scenes tasks and making a vision become a reality. Huartan approached Micheál regarding direction on movement during their live performance, the working relationship and chemistry in the band moulded to something spectacular where it has shaped the experience of Huartan’s live performances. Micheal is now an active dancer in the band and recently became the manager of the band in January 2025, supporting and implementing strategies to excel the bands vision and journey. 

Follow Huartan on social media:

Instagram: Huartan (@huartan_) 

Facebook: Huartan (@huartan)

YouTube: Huartan (@Huartan)

Bandcamp: Huartan

About CAOIMHÍN:

CAOIMHÍN (pronounced "kwee-veen") is a producer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist forging a soulful new Gaelic sound, blending elements from the Irish tradition with alternative genres and concepts such as downtempo electronica, nu-disco, psychedelia and nature-based spirituality.

From sold out shows in venues to late night appearances at small independent music festivals, CAOIMHÍN’s powerful one man live show has graced stages in Ireland and abroad at the likes of All Together Now, Whelan’s, Éalú Le Grá, Fuinneamh, Electric Picnic and Claddagh Fest to name a few.

In February 2025, his 5 track EP ‘Ceantar + Alltar’ was nominated for contemporary album of the year at the NÓS music awards.

Follow CAOIMHÍN on social media:

Instagram: CAOIMHÍN (@caoimhinceol) 

YouTube: CAOIMHÍN (@caoimhinofficial)

Bandcamp: CAOIMHÍN