SOME of Ireland’s best performers have been signed up to play at the second annual Skibb Trad Festival which will take place over the St Brigid Bank Holiday weekend. One of the key attractions of the weekend festival, which will provide lots of great music in local pubs, is the three ‘Church Sessions’.

The sessions will start on Saturday January 31st with a  special concert at Abbeystrewry Church featuring Dezi Donnelly, Mike McGoldrick and Jim Murray. 

Dezi ‘fiddle on fire’ Donnelly is a Manchester-based player and one of the founding members of the legendary Celtic Rock Band ‘Toss the Feathers.’ Mike McGoldrick is a multi-instrumentalist and composer and his versatility on wooden flute, low whistles and Uillinn pipes make him the go-to contributor for many artists. 

Meanwhile Jim Murray is considered to be one of Ireland’s leading guitar players and has, for the last two decades, toured and recorded both nationally and internationally with many of Ireland’s greatest performers.

The second of the Church Sessions will take place on Saturday February 21st, a couple of weeks after the dust has settled on the Skibb Trad Festival. That concert will feature indie folk with John Bramwell, while the finale on Friday March 6th offers a trad session with Don Stiffe, Ger O’Donnell and Trevor Sexton.

One of the organisers of the Church Sessions, William O’Brien, told The Southern Star: ‘With the three concerts, we are taking our inspiration from the successful church sessions in Baltimore.’

‘They offer wonderful, intimate occasions with top class performers and are hugely popular with the public,’ he said. ‘The Church Sessions at Abbeystrewry is our opportunity to make the most of the excellent venue we have here on our doorstep with musicians who are filling every hall in Ireland,’ he added.

William said the organisers are greatly encouraged by the year-on-year increase in attendance at the Masters of Tradition Festival which is held every year in Bantry.

‘We believe there is a ready-made audience for these sessions and they will help to round out our year-long programme of events,’ he said.