Pádraigín Ní Uallachain

Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin is a native of one of the richest regions in cultural and musical heritage in Ireland – Oriel in southeast Ulster. Her home language was Gaelic. Traditional singer, composer, researcher, song writer, author and now a professional singer since 1999. She has recorded nine albums of song, some which include her own original compositions, and is the author of A Hidden Ulster – people, songs and traditions of Oriel (Four Courts Press 2003). Although widely known as a singer, she is a multifaceted traditional artist. Some of her compositions include settings to music of early Irish and bardic poems, and works by leading Irish contemporary poets such as Ciarán Carson, Seamus Heaney, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill and Biddy Jenkinson, some of which can be heard on the recordings An Dara Craiceann (CD, Gael Linn, 1995), Áilleacht / Beauty (CD, Gael Linn, 2005) and Songs of the Scribe (2011). Her varied work includes recordings of traditional song for children, A Stór is a Stóirín (CD, Gael Linn, 1994) and LET THE FAIRIES IN (2012). She is the recipient of numerous awards, including Gradam Shean-Nós Cois Life in 2003 for her contribution to the Irish song tradition, and was the first traditional artist to be awarded a Major Arts Award from the Northern Ireland Arts Council. Her renewal of aspects of the Gaelic Ulster song tradition continues – compiling a collection of songs from the Bréifne tradition, and with the recording of the full Oriel corpus of songs which she restored and published in A Hidden Ulster - people songs and traditions of Oriel (2004). She was awarded a doctorate in 2007. Pádraigín has collaborated and recorded with many other musicians and producers including Garry Ó Briain, Steve Cooney, Máire Breatnach, Palle Mikkelborg, Helen Davies and currently with producer / engineer and multi-instrumentalist Dónal O’Connor. She has studied chant, dhrupad and vocal work with Dr Ritwick Sanyal from Benares in India, with Silvia Nakkach in Auroville in India, and recently with Jill Purce of the Healing Voice in Glastonbury. She has made a major contribution to the song tradition in Ireland by her renewal of the southeast Ulster song tradition in her acclaimed publication A Hidden Ulster. Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin is an acclaimed singer, songwriter and author from Oriel in Ireland. She sings in Sean-Nós and with Early Irish harp.