An album of newly composed traditional music and a documentary about Irish traditional musicians on tour in Scotland are being launched and premiered at Dundalk Institute of Technology at 7pm on 8 June 2017.

A Louth Lilt is an album of music composed and performed by Dr Adèle Commins and Dr Daithí Kearney and co-produced with Kial Wallace through funding awarded by the Research Office for a Summer Undergraduate Research Project in 2016. A Louth Lilt is inspired by people and places in Louth and further afield. From the snows of Norway to the sunsets of Brazil, the legends of the Táin to aspects of everyday life, the music draws on Irish musical traditions with an ear to the wider world. Encompassing influences from the artists rich and varied musical experiences, the pieces reflect a lifetime of engaging with various musical cultures and personalities.

Musicologist Dr Adèle Commins is Head of Department of Creative Arts, Media and Music at Dundalk Institute of Technology. A graduate of NUI Maynooth with first class honours degrees in Music and Irish and Higher Diploma in Education, she also holds an ALCM and LGSMD in piano performance and is Musical Director of two local church choirs. Ethnomusicologist and geographer Dr Daithí Kearney is a graduate of University College Cork and director of the DkIT Ceol Oirghialla Traditional Ensemble. An All-Ireland champion musician, he has toured and recorded as a musician, singer and dancer with a number of groups including Siamsa Tíre, The National Folk Theatre of Ireland, and performed for President Obama in The White House. He recorded the critically acclaimed album Midleton Rare with accordion player John Cronin in 2012 and continues to tour regularly and in 2013 performed with Southbound at the National Folk Festival of Australia. Both Adèle and Daithí toured North and South America in 2014; France, Canada and Scotland in 2016; and Norway in 2017 and their publications include contributions to The Companion to Irish Traditional Music (ed. Vallely, 2012) and the Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland (ed. White and Boydell, 2013).

The Road to Speyfest is an entertaining music documentary also funded by the DkIT Research Office under the Summer Undergraduate Research Scheme. In July 2016, members of the DkIT Ceol Oirghialla Traditional Music Ensemble travelled to Scotland for a series of performances that included a performance at the National Piping Centre for the International Society for Music Education World Conference. The group also performed and facilitated workshops at Speyfest in Fochabers, which was celebrating 21 years. The group included six students from the BA (Hons) Applied Music programme – Martha Guiney (flute), Brianna Madden (button accordion, vocals), Conor Bogue (banjo), Mike Waters (guitar), Ciara Brannigan (tin whistle, dance), and Jane Meehan (fiddle). The group also featured flute player Maurice Mullen, a student on the MA Traditional Music Studies. As well as the performers, two undergraduate students on the BA (Hons) Film and Television Production, Hannah Conroy and John McCallig, accompanied the group to make a documentary, which was subsequently edited with the assistance of staff in the world-class facilities at DkIT.

To reserve tickets to attend the special event at Dundalk Institute of Technology please email alouthlilt [at] gmail.com. For more information on A Louth Lilt and other related research projects see www.alouthlilt.com or https://www.dkit.ie/creative-arts-media-music