Saileog Ní Cheannabháin

Saileog Ní Cheannabháin is a musician, sean nós singer and composer, who grew up in a musical family. She is a native Irish speaker, who has played traditional and classical music on piano from a very young age. She also plays traditional music on fiddle and viola. Saileog has a BMus degree from UCC, where she studied many different kinds of music.

She has released two albums to date. I bhfíor-dheiriú oidhche (2012),is an album of sean nós songs which Saileog learned from Seamus Ennis' collection, from various singers in Iorras Aithneach, Connemara.

Roithleán (2016) is mainly a solo album of traditional music and sean nós songs, with some newly composed tunes, with guest musicians on some tracks. Roithleán was awarded Albam Thraidisiúnta na Bliana (Traditional album of the year) by Nós magazine in 2018.

Saileog features as a guest on Ensemble Ériu's debut album (2011), on the Tunes in the Church compilation album (2013), on the Rogha Raelach Volume 1 compilation (2020), on Úna Monaghan's Aonaracht (2023), and Nyaah Records' album of fiddle and viola slow airs (2025). She also contributed to research work for the Amhráin Ó Iorrus compilation album (2014), which features singers from Erris, Co. Mayo.
The recording of Seachrán Sí on the Ensemble Ériu album features in the sound track of the video game and visual novel "If Found", written by Llaura McGee of Dreamfeel game studio, which was released in 2020.

Saileog participated in an outdoor production of Shakespeare's The Tempest, singing and playing music for St. John's Mill Theatre Company, Co. Kerry, in 2013.
She later worked with Maitiú Ó Casaide and Steve Lynch to compose original music for the theatre production Baoite, directed by Darach Mac Con Iomaire, in 2018 and 2019. She sang as part of a dance performance called The Wake, choreographed by Sarah Dowling, for the Dublin Dance Festival in 2012.


In February 2020, Saileog took part in Úna Monaghan's Aonaracht project at the NCH, performing a piece for piano and electronics. The piece now features on Úna's 2023 album, Aonaracht.
She also features as a guest on Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin's album The Deepest Breath (2022), along with Muireann Ní Cheannabháin.
She featured on John Francis Flynn's debut album, and performed with him on the programme Cumasc: Seisiún sa mBlack Gate in 2023.
Some of her sean nós singing was sampled in tracks (with permission) by the artists Blue Niall (Leanbh, 2022) and Lullahush (An Droighneán Donn, 2025).

One of Saileogs's most long term projects was arranging sean nós songs from Connemara and Rinn Ó gCuanach, along with Ailbhe Nic Dhonncha and Pádraic Keane. They recorded with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra in 2022, and continued to arrange songs from their respective repertoires for over a year afterwards (the project was paused, due to scheduling issues and work commitments).

Saileog is currently working on some new solo compositions, which she plans to record & release in due course.