A fundraising gig will be held in the Button Factory, Dublin 2 from 7pm on Wednesday 22nd April, to raise campaign funds for People Before Profit’s Dublin Central by-election candidate Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin.
The gig will feature performances from John Francis Flynn, Varo, Niamh Keady-Tabbal and Saltaire, as well as from Eoghan himself.
Ó Ceannabháin said “I’m delighted that so many great artists will perform at my election campaign fundraising event. These are people I admire greatly as artists and it is a privilege to have their support.
“I have campaigned for many years to promote artists and protect our cultural spaces from profit-driven development and I look forward to a night of celebration of music and the culture that makes our city creative, vibrant and alive”.
Artists who will perform:
John Francis Flynn is a singer and multi-instrumentalist who creates contemporary music using traditional and folk material. His debut album “I Would Not Live Always” won 2 awards at the RTÉ Folk Awards.
Varo are Dublin-based singers and fiddle players Lucie Azconaga (from France) and Consuelo Nerea Breschi (from Italy) who perform Irish traditional songs and tunes with arrangement influences from the Folk, Baroque and Classical traditions, weaving around the melodies with harmonies, drones and countermelody.
Niamh Keady-Tabbal is an Irish-Lebanese singer and researcher from Kinvara Co. Galway. Through her work documenting border violence in the Mediterranean, she has gathered Arabic songs of exile and resistance from Lebanon, Palestine and Syria. She sings these alongside sean-nós songs that she has gathered from Irish singers, carrying them all in a gripping, expressive voice that feels at home in both languages.
Saltaire brings together three distinct musical voices, shaped by years of performing in acclaimed Irish traditional and folk bands and as sought-after session musicians. Comprised of singer/cellist Kaitlin Cullen-Verhauz, guitarist Ian Kinsella and bodhrán/bouzouki player Conor Lyons, Saltaire creates a rich tapestry of sound, fusing Irish and American folk and trad styles.
Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin is singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Dublin, whose musical roots are in the Conamara sean-nós singing tradition. A versatile performer, he draws on a variety of vocal techniques like lilting and throat singing, concertina playing that breathes with his singing, and a lifting flute style that all combine to create a rooted, expansive soundscape. His songs, carried by a powerful, resonant voice, have a storytelling quality to them as they move through themes of struggle, loss, resistance and healing.
The event will be open to the media and interviews can be arranged on request.