Liam Kelly, Shane Mitchell and Declan Courell

Unfortunately due to illness this show has had to be postponed from Wed 30th August and will now take place on Wednesday 4th of October at lunchtime.

Liam Kelly grew up in Sligo Town and is a founding member of the band Dervish. He began playing traditional Irish music at the young age of 8 starting on the tin whistle at school and a couple of years later was taught by Carmel Gunning. He also played the accordion and was taught by the great Alfie Dineen. He then began to play flute at the age of 16 and went on to play in a group called Poitin who appeared on the Late Late Show after winning a talent competition where the Late Late appearance was the prize.

Dervish then formed at the All Ireland Fleadh in 1989 after which they have gone on to produce 14 albums along with touring all over the world celebrating 32 years in the music business.

Liam released a solo cd, Sweetwood, in 2010, a duet album, Sets in Stone, with Sligo fiddler Philip Duffy in 2015 and a new John McKenna tribute album in 2021 playing one of the flutes that John McKenna used back in the 1920’s.

Joining Liam is Shane Mitchell a Co-founder of Dervish one of the most respected bands of modern times in traditional Irish music, who recently won a BBC Lifetime Achievement Award. Shane was taught by the late legendary Alphie Joe Dineen the leader of The Coleman Country Ceili Band. Both Shane and Liam are foremost exponents of the Sligo Style of music and have been musical partners for the large majority of their life and have won many awards at national level for their duet playing. Their tightly woven playing creates the backbone of the sound of Dervish. Shane is also the founder of the Sligo Live music festival

Completing the line-up is Declan Courell (Guitar). Declan is originally from Castlebar Co, Mayo and has lived in Sligo since 1997. He started his musical career playing rock music but was later introduced to Traditional Irish Music. Declan employs both standard and DADGAD, as well as standard and dropped D tuning, and is well respected for his melodic and percussive playing style.

Declan is also known to sing a few songs, and his repertoire is both varied and interesting and ranges from songs from folk, country and even pop genres. Declan is an established session player in the Sligo region, and his unique guitar-playing style and his choice of songs are popular with both musicians and session-goers.

Declan's son Tiernan is an accomplished flute player and is a member of the Scottish-based band “TRIP”.