Music that makes real connections

CONTRIBUTORS to The Irish Voice share with us their personal highlights and standout performances at this year’s Celtic Connections Festival.

TRUE AND BOLD: A NIGHT FOR DICK GAUGHAN

Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

January 18, 2026

GAUGHAN was a giant of traditional music. His album Handful of Earth is rated as one of the best folk albums ever, but he is now unable to perform after suffering a stroke in 2016, which affected his dexterity and memory. This show was hugely significant and a testament to his power and influence as a performer, a wonderful evening full of highlights.

The audience was regaled with performances from the assembled cast, including Lisa O Neill, Karine Polwart, Seamie O’Dowd, Kris Drever, Mike McGoldrick, Martin and Eliza Carthy and Brian McNeil among many others. Siobhan Miller was the MD and guest MCs were Mike Harding and Stewart Lee.

Deacon Blue’s Ricky Ross and Lorraine McIntosh seamlessly wove their own Wages Day into A Miner’s Life, Billy Bragg led on another Gaughan classic, The World Turned Upside Down, and the brilliant Lisa O’Neill channelled that spirit of resistance into her own The Wind Doesn’t Blow This Far Right.

Comedian Stewart Lee compered the second half with a deadpan humour of which Gaughan would surely approve, introducing a deeply moving performance by a frail Martin Carthy and daughter Eliza. The love for Gaughan was tangible and the room erupted when Dick sang The Shipyard in tribute to another giant of Scottish folk, the late Archie Fisher.

“I’m not as sprightly as I used to be,” he said with a spirit which could not be extinguished, either in person or through the music. Both Sides of the Tweed, his great song of unity, closed the main set and he returned to join the assembly for the Freedom Come-All-Ye, counselling the audience to ‘take it with you where you go.’

STEPHEN COYLE

AN TREAS SUAILE: JULIE FOWLIS AND DUNCAN CHISHOLM

Tron Theatre

January 19, 2026

I'M NOT quite sure what I was expecting from this event, but I came away from An Treas Suaile (The Third Wave) with it being one of the more affecting ‘concert’ experiences I have been to.

An Treas Suaile came from a commission that Julie Fowlis and Duncan Chisholm received to create a musical project to commemorate the 100 year anniversary—in 2019—of the Iolaire disaster, when more than 200 servicemen, returning from action in World War I, were drowned when the boat sank at the entrance to Stornoway Harbour, Isle of Lewis.

The show was a mix of newly composed music, songs in Gaidhlig, traditional material plus archive video and audio recordings with additional visuals and projected images relating to the history of the event.

It was a story I was somewhat familiar with, but my impression was that on the night I was there that many in attendance were from Lewis, the island devastated by the loss of 200 young men from a place with a small population and this, of course, in addition to those already lost in the previous four years of bloody warfare.

Julie on various whistles and Duncan on the fiddle were accompanied by the beautiful piano of Megan Henderson.

Befitting the subject matter, the music was at times sparse but always perfectly judged and often interwoven with the archive material, including interviews with survivors and those who helped them on the night.

The archival material went beyond just looking at the accident itself, but set it in context of the impact on the people of the island of the war that had come before it—the impact on those who went off to fight and on those who stayed.

This included some awful stories such as the reading of a letter from a father to a son who—unbeknownst to him—had already died in battle by the time the father was writing the letter.

The image of young lads from Lewis fighting in the heat of Mesopotamia—so far from home—was particularly striking to me as an example of all the wasted youth in that conflict.

The title referred to John Finlay MacLeod, who leapt overboard with a rope and waited to be carried onto the shore by ‘the third wave,’ which he knew to be the strongest one. Half of those who survived, did so by means of this rope. To hear some of their testimonies alongside the music was very moving.

The latter part of the ‘show’ dealt in large part with the trauma, the grief and the survivor guilt of those on the island in the aftermath of the accident, but also with the resilience of the people and how they just tried to live on. Many, though, emigrated to try and distance themselves from the trauma and those that stayed rarely if ever talked about the event.

It might be an odd thing to say—given the subject matter—but I enjoyed the evening. It was superb and a fitting commemoration—an evening of music and song and remembrance.

EVIN DOWNEY

SHARON SHANNON & ALI LEVACK BIG BAND

Old Fruitmarket

January 22, 2026

I ABSOLUTELY adore The Old Fruitmarket as a venue. My daughter, Áine, had her wedding reception here so it’ll always hold sentiment for me. I feel there’s no place else in Glasgow that exudes the character and warmth or the contrast of light and dark quite like the fruitmarket does. And of course it’s the perfect place for a gig.

I was there on Thursday January 22 as part of this year’s Celtic Connections Festival to see Sharon Shannon perform, but before Sharon took to the stage I stood back in awe, watching for the first time a young man by the name of Ali Levack and his Big Band perform. His gig featured a full 11-piece band, which more than filled the stage, led by Ali who comes from Maryburgh, a small village in the northeast of Scotland, although I believe he has now made his home in County Galway—at least that’s what one of his merchandise sellers told me. As the lead man of the indie trad trio Project SMOK and one half of the duo ‘GLIN’ with Craig Irving, Ali Levack has firmly established himself as one of the most electrifying pipers in Scottish traditional music today and has just released his debut self-titled album. This young fella is going places I can tell you and his performance was both powerful and unforgettable, and he was the perfect starter for the main course; Miss Sharon Shannon.

Sharon Shannon, composer and musician will always be viewed as the woman who redefined the role of the button accordion in Irish trad music. Originally a member of the Irish folk band, The Waterboys, Sharon broke loose in the early 1990s with a best-selling solo album that truly showcased her unique and fearless playing, and being a County Clare woman, it’s easy to see and hear where her influences not only stem from, but are firmly rooted. She’s had some unforgettable and somewhat different collaborations over the years too, with the likes of Dessie O’Halloran, Willie Nelson and Steve Earle, blending Irish with country, reggae, tango and classical music.

Her live performances are always lively, but grounded at the same time. As much as the audience knows that she’s loving the performance element of it, she never comes across as pretentious, which is what I like most about her. And on Thursday night, whilst only being accompanied by two other musicians—one on guitar, the other on banjo standing either side of her—she still brings that broad white enigmatic smile and energy, the same way she does when she has a full complement of musicians surrounding her. In true County Clare style she lifted us with a couple of good foot tapping reels, West Along The Road and Dan Breen’s Reel, where she played the tin whistle. She even threw an old-time waltz in there for the nostalgic old timers among us, called The Merry Widow. Declan, her banjo player, gave us a solo with a beautiful tune called Tide of Time, which I’d never heard before and collectively they played a tune by the famous Scots piper, Fred Morrison, taught to them by the one and only Mike McGoldrick.

I won’t deny I miss the unmistakeable warble of Dessie O’Halloran from back in the day belting out Say You Love Me or Steve Earle’s rendition of Galway Girl, but her guitarist stepped in to do the needful and sang the Galway Girl hit that made her world famous. Her support act, Ali Levack joined her for a set too. Two varying Scots and Irish styles fusing together in a gorgeous Celtic blend of tradition. A great gig by a great musician who I will never fall out of love with!

LJ SEXTON

THE SEEGER SESSIONS REVIVAL AND GERMAINE

St Luke’s

January 23, 2026

WITH the renovations of the Mackintosh Church and St Luke’s into music venues, we Celts are turning our places of religious worship into places of sonic celebration.

If the Luka Bloom concert was one man and his guitar holding the audience in the palm of his hands, then the Seeger Sessions was 13 musicians blowing the crowd away with their recreation of Springsteen’s We Shall Overcome. The Seeger Sessions’ frontman, Donegal’s Dermot McGee, was born to give The Boss a run for his money with his stage presence and a voice which is a sonorous tour de force.

The standout songs of their wall of sound were Jesse James, which saw the Glasgow crowd dance and sing like they were at a Pogues gig in the 1980s. Old Dan Tucker again, witnessed the packed audience hymn an anthem. Their rendition of Pay Me My Money Down raised the roof of the old church. I have been to many memorable nights in the east end of Glasgow, this was one of them.

DR DAVID McKINSTRY

LUKA BLOOM AND LIV GREENE

Mackintosh Church

January 26, 2026

THE Mackintosh Church was a very apt to venue to welcome Luka Bloom. The church built by one of Scotland’s finest architects played host to one of Ireland’s best musical craftsmen.

The venue and the gig did not disappoint and warmed a wet Monday night in January. Luka came onto stage and immediately engaged and captivated the packed venue with his stagecraft which is no mean feat for one man and his guitar. Of the many excellent songs, there were some stand out tunes including the bluesy Don’t Be So Hard On Yourself, which displayed Luka’s guitar genius and his singing range. I Hear You, about a friend dying during the Covid-19 pandemic, was both tender and reflective of a wider global experience that we all went through during those strange seasons.

Interspersed with his excellent songs is Luka’s ability to tell a tale which draws in his audience and makes them part of the musical experience. His story of being in Chicago during St Patrick’s Day and telling a disbelieving news reporter that he actually wrote City of Chicago, not his brother Christy Moore was hilariously ironic. His subsequent rendition of the song leaves us in no doubt that he owns that tune. From an original song to a cover of Prince’s When Doves Cry shows Luka’s range as an originator and interpreter of classic songs.

One of the final songs that Luka ended his set was A Man’s Alive, which is particularly poignant given that Irish songsmith has made a full recovery from the heart surgery last year. Luka Bloom singing in one of Glasgow’s most beautiful churches with the voice of an angel is certainly a man alive.

The Irish Troubadour’s support act was Liv Greene, the Nashville based singer-songwriter. Greene’s engagement with the audience was immediate and warmly received. She looked around the architectural masterpiece that is the Mackintosh Church and opened with the line: “What a dump.” Glaswegians love cheek and from there on in she captured the audience with her intimate folksy tunes.

Stand out songs included the self-penned Wild Geese with its melancholy melody which showcases her ability to hold a note and an audience. Her vocal range was equally demonstrated in her cover of the Rufus Wainright cover Going to a Town. Brave is the singer who attempts a cover of a Wainright song, but she does not disappoint and gives the classic added contemporary poignancy in Trump’s America. Greene grew out of the New England folk scene, and you can hear the influences of Patti Griffith and Emmylou Harris in her beautifully crafted intimate tunes. Her debut album Deep Feeler is title which is apt for Greene’s music and her melodic and captivating performance.

DR DAVID McKINSTRY

SHARON SHANNON PIC: AB CASSIDY PHOTOGRAPHY