Maighread and Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill with Special Guest Manus Lunny

 Maighread and Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill

Sisters Maighread and Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill belong to a renowned singing family originally from the Donegal Gaeltacht.  The unique style and repertoire of traditional singing they represent so gloriously, comes down to them through generations of the Ó Domhnaill family.  Added to this is their distinctive unison and harmonic interpretations of Donegal songs and their fluent and accomplished singing to instrumental accompaniment. 

Tríona (who was a member of one of the most influential groups in contemporary Irish traditional music, The Bothy Band) is a skilled keyboard player of piano, clavinet and harpsichord and also a composer and arranger of traditional material. With their brother, the late Mícheál, a fine singer and instrumental player, they formed the seminal traditional group, Skara Brae in the late 1960s.  It was through this group and its one recording, now a classic, that the regional songs of their native Donegal were introduced to a wide audience both in Ireland and abroad.

In 1999, the two sisters recorded the album Idir an Dá Sholas with Donal Lunny.  A few years later they combined their talents with two other Donegal women Moya Brennan (of Clannad) and Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh (of Altan) to make an album under the title T with the Maggies.  

Maighread and Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill will be touring as a duo.  Their live performances are unforgettable heart-rending events.  The sound of their solo and combined voices is indescribable but lingers in the memory forever.

Manus Lunny

Manus Lunny comes from Donegal, from a family steeped in the musical tradition of Ireland.

His touring career began with ‘The Wild Geese’. He has also toured with Andy M.Stewart (former Silly Wizard member) and with Phil Cunningham and Andy Stewart as a trio.

Outwith his work in Capercaillie, Manus is in great demand as a session musician and writer for both album and television recordings. He has worked on several TV series including the recent ‘Tacsi’ and ‘Togaidh Sinn Fonn’ series produced in Scotland and featuring musicians from not only the Scottish and Irish tradition, but from all over the world.

In collaboration with Phil Cunningham he has written two pieces for the American record label ‘Windham Hill’ entitled ‘When the Snows Melt’ and ‘Channonry Point’. He and Phil performed together in November 1996 at the prestigious Cite de La Musique in Paris.

Manus is a gifted instrumentalist, singer and composer and has earned a reputation as one of the most significant performers from the Irish tradition, adding in a contemporary vein to the heritage of traditional music and song.