Mayo venue set to host amazing Irish traditional music performance

Music Network are proud to announce a nationwide tour featuring Kevin Burke, Dermot Byrne, Noriana Kennedy and Jim Murray, from February 10 to March 1, 2026, as part of the organisation's 40th anniversary celebrations.

This is an unmissable, new collaboration featuring four extraordinary artists who have shared their music with audiences over four decades of Music Network's National Touring Programme. The Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar, will host one of the concerts on Friday, February 27, at 8 p.m. Music Network is Ireland’s national music touring and development organisation.

People attending the concert in Castlebar on February 27 will get the opportunity to see Kevin Burke, whose fiddle playing has been at the forefront of traditional music since the 1970s. His far-reaching solo album If the Cap Fits, and his work with such distinguished performers such as Arlo Guthrie, Kate Bush, Christy Moore and the Bothy Band, established him as a ground-breaking artist. Kevin has earned international acclaim in both Europe and America as a solo performer, a teacher and as a member of some of folk music’s foremost groups. He performed at the Celtic Fiddle Festival and Ireland’s long admired and respected Patrick O'Keefe Festival.

He has been the recipient of prestigious awards including Gradam Ceoil TG4 Musician of the Year 2016, and a National Heritage Fellowship - the USA's highest honour for excellence in the folk and traditional arts.

Joining Kevin will be Dermot Byrne and he is another Gradam Ceoil TG4 Musician of the Year, and his seemingly effortless accordion playing, combined with great subtlety and a faultless ear, makes him one of the finest accordion players of his generation. Hailing from the Inishowen peninsula in Donegal, Dermot was a member of the renowned Irish traditional music band Altan from 1994 to 2013. He has also collaborated with Séamus and Manus McGuire, Sharon Shannon, Frankie Gavin and Bríd Harper. Outside of traditional music, he has recorded and performed with household names including Dolly Parton, John Prine, Vince Gill, Alison Krauss, Paul Brady and the late jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli. His recent recordings with Canadian fiddler Pierre Schryer (2Worlds United), French harpist Floriane Blancke (Dermot Byrne and Floriane Blancke), Yvonne Casey (As We Feel It) and Steve Cooney (The Donegal Melodeon), have received widespread critical acclaim.

Those in attendance will also see Noriana Kennedy, who has a captivating voice lauded by the Irish Times as 'a knockout: translucent and tenacious in equal measure'. Since her debut album Ebb n Flow was released in 2011, her career has soared, touring extensively in the USA with renowned traditional group Solas and sharing the stage with highly respected artists like Pauline Scanlon, Eilís Kennedy, Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh and John Spillane. In 2013, Noriana joined Nicola Joyce and Noelie McDonnell to form the stunning songwriting trio The Whileaways. Together with her bandmates, Noriana has contributed to four albums, earning several RTÉ Folk Award nominations along the way.

Jim Murray will also be on stage at the Linenhall Arts Centre and he is one of the world’s leading acoustic guitar players. For over twenty years he has toured, performed and recorded with artists such as Sharon Shannon, Sinéad O’Connor, Steve Earle, Shane MacGowan, Séamus Begley, Mike McGoldrick, Altan and Mary Black. In 1998, he began his professional career, having been invited to tour Japan and Australia with accordion legend Séamus Begley, whilst also in the same year touring America with piano accordion ace Alan Kelly. In 1999, Jim was invited to become guitarist with world renowned Irish musician Sharon Shannon and has recorded and toured with her across five continents. Jim had an extraordinary musical partnership with accordionist and singer Séamus Begley and their debut album Ragairne, released in 2001, received both The Irish Times and Hot Press Traditional Irish Music Album of the Year.

The programme will feature inspired performances of traditional and contemporary material from four artists whose collective experience and creativity have carved a deep impression on the landscape of traditional Irish music.

Tickets for the concert at the Linenhall Arts Centre are available to purchase here.