Fiddler of Dooney
25th September 2017
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Sligo Town Branch of CCÉ in association with Sligo Live Festival hosted the Fiddler of Dooney Competition over the October Bank Holiday weekend.
The competition, inagurated in 1965, is one of the oldest and most prestigious instrumental competitions in the tradition and is inspired by the W B Yeats poem, of the same name.
The role of previous winners reads like a who’s who of traditional fiddling and includes Matt Cranitch, Cathal Hayden, Brid Harper, Liz Kane, Paddy Glacken, Niall Murphy, Lucia McPartlin, Rhona Lynch, Seamus and Manus McGuire.
Winners have come from all over the country and from traditional musicians based overseas. Competitors need not be tied to any rigid formula or to play in a Sligo style, although Sligo Live celebrates the Sligo style with its infectious lift.