Author: maldonm

Rónán Regan Feb. 10th

2/10 – Ronan Regan

Rónán Regan is a Traditional Irish musicians and dancer. He wrote his thesis on the Leitrim style of music, specialising in the musical styles of Ben Lennon (Recipient of Civic Reception Award from Leitrim County Council in 2007 and TG4 Music Award, 2011) and Jim Connolly and completed his Masters in traditional music performance, with modules in sean-nós dance in University of Limerick, 2005.  

Rónán released the instructional DVDs ‘Dance Sean-Nós’ with Maldon Meehan in 2005 featuring the renowned box player Johnny O’Halloran from Inish Bofin and ‘Dance Sean-Nós for beginners‘ in 2009 featuring guest dancers and the virtuoso box player P.J. Hernon from Connemara.

Sean’s musical interests focus strongly on Irish-language songs and fiddle tunes, but also musics from Indonesia, Brazil, and Japan. Her books include Bright Star of the West: Joe Heaney, Irish Song-Man, which she co-wrote with Lillis Ó Laoire, and the textbook Focus: Irish Traditional Music. Sean was very fortunate to have studied with the sean-nós or old-style Connemara singer Joe Heaney in the last several years of his life, and counts him as one of her most important musical influences. She has also learned sean-nós songs from Gearóidín Breathnach, Máirín Uí Chéide, Lillis Ó Laoire, Celia Ní Fhátharta, Bridget Fitzgerald, and many others. 

Preston has been playing traditional Irish dance music on the uilleann pipes (pronounced ‘ill-yun’) for over 20 years.  The uilleann pipes are Ireland’s national bagpipe and differ from their more famous Scottish cousin in that they are a bit quieter, lower-pitched, and have a much broader musical range.  Where the Scottish bagpipe is intended for marching into battle the Irish bagpipe is intended for enjoying communal dancing and maybe a pint or two.  Due to their larger musical range and more nuanced tonality, the uilleann pipes enjoy a resplendent repertoire as well as a plethora of playing styles in contrast to the militarized homogeneity of the Scottish piping tradition.  Preston’s focus has been on the older pre-famine Irish piping canon (1760’s-1850’s) as well as fiddle music from Cork, Kerry, Clare, Belfast, Sligo, and Fermanagh.