Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill is an Irish traditional singer, pianist, and composer, considered one of the most influential female vocalists in the history of Irish music. She is famed for her work with traditional Irish groups such as
Skara BraeSkara Brae were an Irish traditional music group from Kells, County Meath with origins in Ranafast , County Donegal. The group consisted of three siblings, Micheal O Domhnaill, Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill, and Maighread Ni Dhomhnaill, with Dáithí Sproule from Derry...
,
The Bothy BandThe Bothy Band was an Irish traditional band active during the late 1970s. It quickly gained a reputation as one of the most influential bands playing Irish traditional music...
,
RelativityRelativity was a Scotch-Irish quartet formed in 1985 consisting of two Scottish brothers and an Irish brother and sister. The four members of the band were brothers Phil Cunningham and John Cunningham , from the influential Scottish band Silly Wizard, and Irish sister and brother Tríona Ní...
, Touchstone, and
NightnoiseNightnoise was a music ensemble active from 1984 to 1997. Their original blend of Irish traditional music, Celtic music, jazz, and classical chamber music inspired a generation of Irish musicians...
.
Early years
Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill was raised in
Kells, County MeathKells is a town in County Meath, Ireland. The town lies off the M3 motorway, from Navan and from Dublin. In recent years Kells has grown greatly with many Dublin commuters moving to the town....
. Her paternal grandparents moved there from the Rann na Feirste
Gaeltachtis the Irish language word meaning an Irish-speaking region. In Ireland, the Gaeltacht, or an Ghaeltacht, refers individually to any, or collectively to all, of the districts where the government recognises that the Irish language is the predominant language, that is, the vernacular spoken at home...
of
DonegalCounty Donegal is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Border Region and is also located in the province of Ulster. It is named after the town of Donegal. Donegal County Council is the local authority for the county...
in the 1930s.
Tríona is from a prominent musical family. Her paternal aunt, Neillí, contributed nearly 300 folk songs to the folklore collection of
University College DublinUniversity College Dublin ) - formally known as University College Dublin - National University of Ireland, Dublin is the Republic of Ireland's largest, and Ireland's second largest, university, with over 1,300 faculty and 17,000 students...
. Together with her brother,
Mícheál Ó DomhnaillMícheál Ó Domhnaill was an Irish singer, guitarist, and composer, who was a major influence on Irish traditional music in the second half of the twentieth century...
, younger sister
Maighread Ní DhomhnaillMaighread Ní Dhomhnaill is an Irish traditional singer from Kells, County Meath. Known for her work with the short-lived, but very highly regarded Skara Brae and her collaborations with sister Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill, as well as other traditional musicians...
, and multi-instrumentalist
Dáithí SprouleDáithí Sproule is a guitarist and singer of traditional Irish music from Derry, Northern Ireland. His niece is the singer songwriter Claire Sproule.-Biography:...
, Ní Dhomhnaill first attracted attention with their folk group,
Skara BraeSkara Brae were an Irish traditional music group from Kells, County Meath with origins in Ranafast , County Donegal. The group consisted of three siblings, Micheal O Domhnaill, Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill, and Maighread Ni Dhomhnaill, with Dáithí Sproule from Derry...
, that specialized in songs sung in
GaelicIrish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
, many sourced from the Rann na Feirste area where their father's family originated.
The Bothy Band
When
bouzoukiThe bouzouki , is a musical instrument with Greek origin in the lute family. A mainstay of modern Greek music, the front of the body is flat and is usually heavily inlaid with mother-of-pearl. The instrument is played with a plectrum and has a sharp metallic sound, reminiscent of a mandolin but...
player
Dónal LunnyDónal Lunny is an Irish folk musician. Lunny has been at the forefront of the evolution of traditional Irish music for more than thirty-five years and has participated within the renaissance of traditional Irish music in that time period...
left the Irish folk band
PlanxtyPlanxty is an Irish folk music band formed in the 1970s, consisting initially of Christy Moore , Dónal Lunny , Andy Irvine , and Liam O'Flynn...
in 1975 and launched a new record label called
Mulligan, one of his first projects was to form a band to accompany accordion player
Tony MacMahonTony MacMahon is an Irish button accordion player and broadcaster. Among his influences were accordionists Joe Cooley and Sonny Brogan, as well as piper Willie Clancy, fiddler Bobby Casey, and singer and piper Seamus Ennis....
on a series of shows for Irish National Radio. Along with uilleann pipe player
Paddy KeenanPaddy Keenan is an Irish player of the uilleann pipes who first gained fame as a founding member of The Bothy Band. Since that group's dissolution in the late 1970s, Keenan has released a number of solo and collaborative recordings, and continues to tour both as a soloist, and with...
,
fluteThe flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
and
whistleA whistle or call is a simple aerophone, an instrument which produces sound from a stream of forced air. It may be mouth-operated, or powered by air pressure, steam, or other means...
player
Matt MolloyMatt Molloy is an Irish musician, from a region known for producing talented flautists. As a child, he began playing the flute and won the All-Ireland Flute Championship at only seventeen years old...
, and fiddle player
Paddy GlackinPaddy Glackin is an Irish fiddler from Clontarf, Dublin. His father Tom Glackin was from Donegal and Paddy's fiddle style reflects his family's Donegal roots. Glackin is considered one of the leading Irish fiddlers in the late 20th/early 21st centuries. He became fiddle champion at the All-Ireland...
, Ní Dhomhnaill and her brother became charter members. Initially named Seachtar (meaning "seven"), the group changed its name to
the Bothy BandThe Bothy Band was an Irish traditional band active during the late 1970s. It quickly gained a reputation as one of the most influential bands playing Irish traditional music...
after the departure of MacMahon.
As the Bothy Band, the group played its first concert on February 2, 1975, at
Trinity College, DublinTrinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...
. Although they were together for only three years, the Bothy Band were one of the first bands to bring the musical traditions of Ireland up to contemporary standards. While the group experienced numerous personnel changes, Ní Dhomhnaill and her brother Micheal were still members when the Bothy Band's final album,
Afterhours, was recorded during a concert performance at the Palais des Artes in
ParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1978. A second live album,
Live in Concert, recorded by the
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
in
LondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
at the
Paris TheatreThe Paris Theatre was a former cinema located in Lower Regent Street, London, which was converted into a theatre by the BBC for radio broadcasts...
in July 1976 and Kilburn National Theatre in July 1978, was released in 1995.
Career in the United States
By the time the Bothy Band disbanded in 1979, Ní Dhomhnaill had been persuaded by singer/songwriter Mike Cross to emigrate to
Chapel Hill, North CarolinaChapel Hill is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, United States and the home of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UNC Health Care...
in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Ní Dhomhnaill soon assembled a new band of North American musicians, Touchstone, that initially rehearsed in Cross’s home. Touchstone's two albums,
The New Land (1982) and
Jealousy (1984), combined songs sung in
GaelicIrish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
, original singer/songwriter tunes, and traditional folk songs from the United States and
Nova ScotiaNova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
.
Relocating to
Portland, OregonPortland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, in the mid-1980s, Ní Dhomhnaill was reunited with her brother
MícheálMícheál Ó Domhnaill was an Irish singer, guitarist, and composer, who was a major influence on Irish traditional music in the second half of the twentieth century...
, who had emigrated to the area from
IrelandIreland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
a few years before. Together with the Cunningham brothers,
JohnnyJohnny Cunningham was a Scottish folk musician. He was a founding member of Silly Wizard, as well as a member of Relativity, The Raindogs, and Nightnoise. Throughout his career, Cunningham was also a fiddler, composer and producer. His younger brother, Phil Cunningham, is a multi-instrumentalist...
and
PhilPhil Cunningham, MBE, born 1960 in Edinburgh, Scotland is a Scottish folk musician and composer.-Biography:Phil played accordion and violin from a very young age. He attended school in Portobello, and was raised Mormon, attending church regularly and playing organ...
, formerly with the Scottish group
Silly WizardSilly Wizard was a Scottish folk band that began forming in Edinburgh in 1970. The founder members were two like-minded university students—Gordon Jones and Bob Thomas...
, they toured and recorded two albums as
RelativityRelativity was a Scotch-Irish quartet formed in 1985 consisting of two Scottish brothers and an Irish brother and sister. The four members of the band were brothers Phil Cunningham and John Cunningham , from the influential Scottish band Silly Wizard, and Irish sister and brother Tríona Ní...
. They also collaborated with Billy Oskay and
Brian DunningBrian Dunning is an Irish flautist, largely known for being a member of Nightnoise. He had both Celtic and jazz influences early on. He studied at the Berklee College of Music in 1977. He is also known for works with Jeff Johnson, such as cùChilainn's Last Battle, and can be heard on the soundtrack...
, later replaced by Johnny Cunningham, in a Celtic-tinged new age group,
NightnoiseNightnoise was a music ensemble active from 1984 to 1997. Their original blend of Irish traditional music, Celtic music, jazz, and classical chamber music inspired a generation of Irish musicians...
.
Discography
Solo albums
- Tríona (1975)
- Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill (1993)
- The Key's Within (2010)
With Skara Brae
With Clannad
- Clannad 2
Clannad 2 is the second studio album by Irish folk group Clannad. It was released in 1975.-Track listing:# "An Gabhar Bán " – 3:15# "Eleanor Plunkett" – 2:49# "Coinleach Glas An Fhómhair" – 5:46# "Rince Philib A'Cheoil" – 1:51...
(1975)
With The Bothy Band
- The Bothy Band (1975)
- Old Hag You Have Killed Me (1976)
- Out Of The Wind (1977)
- After Hours (Live in Paris) (1979)
- Best Of The Bothy Band (1983)
- The Bothy Band – Live in Concert (1995)
With Touchstone
- The New Land (1982)
- Jealousy (1984)
With Relativity
- Relativity (1985)
- Gathering Pace (1987)
With Nightnoise
- Something of Time (1987)
- At the End of the Evening (1988)
- The Parting Tide (1990)
- A Windham Hill Retrospective (1992, compilation
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
)
- Shadow of Time (1993)
- A Different Shore (1995)
- The White Horse Sessions (1997)
- Pure Nightnoise (2006, compilation)
With Maighread Ní Dhomhnaill
- Idir an Dá Sholas
Idir an Dá Sholas is a music album by Irish musicians Maighread Ní Dhomhnaill, Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill and Dónal Lunny...
(with Maighread Ní DhomhnaillMaighread Ní Dhomhnaill is an Irish traditional singer from Kells, County Meath. Known for her work with the short-lived, but very highly regarded Skara Brae and her collaborations with sister Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill, as well as other traditional musicians...
and Dónal LunnyDónal Lunny is an Irish folk musician. Lunny has been at the forefront of the evolution of traditional Irish music for more than thirty-five years and has participated within the renaissance of traditional Irish music in that time period...
) (1999)
With other artists
- Imeall
- Personnel :*Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh - vocals, Irish fiddle, Hardanger fiddle*Manus Lunny - bouzouki, programming, vocals, guitar*Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill - piano*Dónal Lunny - bodhrán*Michael McGoldrick - flute, uileann Pipes*Jim Higgins - percussion, bodhrán...
(with Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh) (2008)
- Ceol Cheann Dubhrann
-Singers:* Máire Ní Bhraonáin* Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh* Maighread Ní Dhomhnaill* Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill* Gearóidín Breathnach* Dónall Mac Ruairí* Connie Mhary Mhicí Ó Gallchóir* Bernard Ó Duibheannaigh* Aodh Óg Ó Duibheannaigh* Aodh Mac Ruairí...
(2009)
- T with the Maggies
-Release:The album was launched in Dublin on 29 October 2010 by actor Stephen Rea. Friends of the singers in attendance included musicians Luka Bloom, Neil Martin and Paul Brady and broadcaster Miriam O'Callaghan...
(2010)
Compilations
- Celtic Christmas: A Windham Hill Sampler (1995)
- Celtic Christmas Volme II: A Windham Hill Sampler (1996)
- Celtic Christmas Volume III: A Windham Hill Sampler (1997)
- Celtic Christmas Volume III: A Windham Hill Sampler (1998)
External links