Award-winner to perform
On Sunday, October 12, Martin Hayes will be appearing at the 2025 DNLF at Nenagh Arts Centre.
Hayes is a renowned fiddle player from County Clare and one of Ireland’s most lauded musical exports. He is a founding member of Irish-American band The Gloaming with Iarl O’Lionáird. Thomas Bartlett, Caomhín Ó Raghallaigh and the late Dennis Cahill. He has played with many of the greatest traditional Irish musicians of the past thirty years, as well as Sting, Paul Simon and Yo-Yo Ma.
He’ll be in conversation with Nenagh native Brian Morrissey and will be discussing his book Shared Noted: A Musical Journey. According to Brian, Martin Hayes is “one of the greatest ever performers and collaborators in the history of Irish traditional music. Martin’s philosophical and deeply intellectual approach to his art is legendary”.
Martin Hayes spent his childhood on a farm in County Clare, in a household steeped in musical tradition. After a free-spirited youth, he headed to the United States where he built a career that led to a life of musical performance on stages all over the world. Shared Notes traces this remarkable journey.
Picking up his first fiddle at the age of seven, Hayes learned that music must express feeling. No amount of technical prowess can compensate for an absence of soulfulness. His interpretations of traditional Irish music are recognized the world over for their exquisite musicality and irresistible rhythm. Hayes for the first time, tells his story of getting to the heart of the music.
Brian Morrissey is a renowned musician, composer, arranger and music educator from Nenagh. As a performer and collaborator, Brian has shared the stage and recorded with some of the world’s greatest musicians, primarily in the traditional Irish music genre and also in the jazz, classical, contemporary, ecclesiastical and country genres. A selection of artists that Brian has collaborated with include Béla Fleck, John Spillane, Luka Bloom, Donal Lunny, Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin (RIP), Nathan Carter, Liam Lawton, Kevin Crawford and Niall, Cillian and Caoimhín Vallely. Brian is a member of the ground-breaking groups BUILLE, Fiddlesticks, The OARS and TarantaCeltica. Residing in Cork now for many years, Brian is the founding director of The Lee Sessions, Cork city’s extensive traditional music trail and was the producer and composer of the critically acclaimed stage production Pulses of Tradition. He has worked as a lecturer and tutor in the Irish World Academy, University of Limerick and also as a regular tutor at the School of Music and Drama, University College Cork. Brian is honoured to host an evening with Martin Hayes for the Dromineer Nenagh Literary Festival 2025. According to Brian, Martin Hayes is “one of the greatest ever performers and collaborators in the history of Irish traditional music. Martin’s philosophical and deeply intellectual approach to his art is legendary.”