Celtic Connections 8

The New Irish Tradition
Saturday, 3 February 2007

This was the last event of the Celtic Connections festival that we'll attend. Today it comes to an end, which is incredibly sad as we have had a wonderful time this past couple weeks listening to all the music in the city. But our last concert was lovely. This one was held at St Andrew's in the Square which is an old church that was saved from ruin by being converted into a beautiful venue with a restaurant in the basement. As seating was first come, first serve, we decided to get there early. So we had a wonderful meal in the restaurant in the basement. The food was excellent and they use mainly all Scottish ingredients. And the dessert was DEVINE. One of the best cheesecakes I have ever had the chance to consume.

I took a couple of pictures of the ceiling and the clock in the back of the church...

The first group on was Caoimhin O Raghallaigh, playing the fiddle, and Mick O'Brien, playing the pipes. This was an amazing act and I would love to purchase their CD that's out. They were incredibly mellow in their tunes and both played beautifully. I think that their music would be the ultimate relaxation method ... I can just imagine their music playing in the background with a glass of wine and a good book ... it sounds lovely.

The next group that played was definitely more lively in their song choices. They played excellently as well. It was advertised as just being Andy Morrow, playing the fiddle, and Tony O'Connell, playing the concertina, but came with three others playing the flute, guitar, and drum. They all played excellently together as well, so well in fact that they were cheered on to play one more set. The only irritating thing about that was that they seemed to "know" this would happen. They left all instruments on the seats for easy pick up upon returning.