I wrote this tune in honour of all the people who have sadly lost their lives throughout this pandemic and the frontline workers for their massive sacrifice and help in saving so many others.

Dympna O’Sullivan asked me if I would compose a tune for her album. I knew she liked playing waltzes so I wrote this one and we played it together on the recording.

Chumas an válsa seo i rith an chéad ‘dhianghlasáil’ mar bhraitheas uaim mo mhuintir go mór. “Déanfaimid Waltz” adeirim féin agus Mam lena chéile nuair a bhíonn fonn orainn rince a dhéanamh go háirithe nuair a bhíonn Daid ag seimint.
I wrote this waltz during the (first) lockdown for my family as I missed them. “Déanfaimid Waltz” (Let’s Waltz) is what my Mam and I say to each other whenever a waltzing opportunity arises, especially when my Dad is playing.

Bill had a big birthday and we couldn’t attend due to Covid restrictions. I wrote him this waltz to compensate. I put this tune with Válsa an Ghrianstad; I hope that Bill will see many more solstices.

In a year which has had much darkness, the solstice felt particularly meaningful for me. I watched a live broadcast of first light penetrating the megalithic tomb of Newgrange, and woke up the next morning with this tune in my head! It had to be called ‘Válsa an Ghrianstad’ – literally, ‘the waltz of the sun-stop’.

The keeper of the spring is a tune written in memory of Anthony (Tony) Moylan, a mighty man from Kinvara, Co. Galway. In an amazing eulogy at his funeral, the priest likened him to the title describing him as a man that invigorated the locality by starting a soccer club, Cruinnuí na mBád and the Cuckoo Fleadh to name but a few.

In 2014, The Risen People, a play by James Plunkett, was showing on the Abbey Stage, Ireland’s National Theatre. It was set in the shadow of the 1913 Lockout, a major industrial dispute between 20,000 workers and 300 employees in Ireland’s capital city, which lasted months and caused huge hardship. After every performance of the play, a special guest was invited to give their response in what became known as The Noble Call. I was very honoured to be one such Noble Caller and chose to honour all the women in the struggle, in particular Rosie Hackett. Rosie helped organise 3,000 women from Jacob’s Biscuit factory to strike in support of their male colleagues, was a founding member of the Irish Women Workers’ Union and fought in the 1916 Easter Rising, a precursor to Ireland’s War of Independence. In 2013 a bridge traversing the river Liffey in Dublin was named in her honour.

It can be found on my latest album “Donnelly’s Arm”. My speech and performance as a Noble Caller can be heard here.

This was the first of many tunes that I wrote during the first lockdown of 2020.

I composed this waltz for a friend’s young son.It was originally just in two parts and easy enough for a child to play, hence the simplicity of the melody.I decided to develop this simple waltz into an expanded version reflective of my mood during the pandemic.

Bainis Cathrach was written for my brother Ruadhán and his wife Jean on their wedding day which took place on a cold winter’s day in City Hall in Dublin.

This is a three part waltz written in and named after our first house which was on Sperrin Road in Drimnagh, where we lived for many happy years.

By the silvery waters of Lough Gill is a great place to reflect, contemplate and compose. W.B. Yeats wrote often about this lake and I write in homage to its beauty.