Following a call for applications in May, fiddle player and festival organiser Eoin O’Sullivan has been appointed as the first Sliabh Luachra Musician in Residence.

Sliabh Luachra is an area rich in traditional music and includes parts of counties Cork, Kerry and Limerick. In 2014, a Sliabh Luachra Music Trail was launched. The residency is a new initiative arising from that and is supported by the Arts Offices of Cork and Kerry County Council and Limerick City and County Council, the Irish Traditional Music Archive and the Arts Council.

Over the next 12 months, O’Sullivan will be working with children in schools in the Sliabh Luachra area promoting awareness of the region’s musical heritage. He will also engage with music festivals, music, singing and set dance groups, local musicians and music teachers.

Announcing the appointment, Cork County Council Arts Officer Ian McDonagh said

The Sliabh Luachra region has an incredibly rich heritage in music, song and dance. The Sliabh Luachra style is one of the great traditional music performance styles and is known the world over. However the transmission and practice of that great tradition in Sliabh Luachra region is under pressure on many levels. Through this residency, we are delivering on a commitment to support the musicians and organisations already working locally to preserve and promote the music of their local areas.

Eoin O’Sullivan is from Newmarket, County Cork. He spent his childhood immersed in the music and history of Sliabh Luachra, particularly due to his father, the fiddle-player and local historian Raymond O’Sullivan. In 2013, O’Sullivan started a small school teaching local music to people of all ages and in the same year he took on the role of director of Scully’s Fest, a celebration of the traditional music of Duhallow and Sliabh Luachra.

For more on Sliabh Luachra, visit http://sliabhluachra.ie/