Stellar line-up honours unique studio setting

The festival comprises a run of gigs at Stiúideo Cuan featuring some of Ireland’s premier folk and alternative artists.

First up is Roesy, the alias of Birr native Alan Roe, who has eight albums and many years of touring experience to his name, but has spent much of the last decade putting his music on pause.

“We used to be neighbours down the Claddagh about 20 or 30 years ago,” says Darach Mac Con Iomaire, creative director of Stiúideo Cuan.

“He went off to Australia for about 15 years, so he’s back and back touring new music which is wonderful.

“He’s also a multidisciplinary artist, so the studio will be transformed nearly into an art gallery for the gig, with all his own artwork.”

The rest of the festival plays out over the following weekend with three consecutive nights of gigs.

On Thursday, June 18, folk singer-songwriter Lisa Hannigan tops the bill.

Mac Con Iomaire first encountered her in An Taibhdhearc, where he worked as an artistic director in his early twenties.

“There’s very little that needs to be said about Lisa,” he says. “She’s just a wonderful artist.”

On Friday, June 19, Dundalk poet and troubadour David Keenan headlines.

Darach Mac Con Iomaire describes him as a really special and unique performer, and an artist perfectly suited for Stiúideo Cuan, which is a “very particular venue”.

Darach’s brother, Colm Mac An Iomaire, closes the festival out on June 20.

A composer, film score arranger and multi-instrumentalist, Colm is known for his work with Kíla and The Frames, as well as the three albums he has released under his own name.

“He’s really found his own voice musically, and it’s going to be wonderful to welcome him,” Darach says.

With a limited capacity of about 120, Stiúideo Cuan is as intimate a venue as you’ll find in Ireland.

Mac Con Iomaire suggests it is one of the top three recording studios in Europe, custom-built by acoustics expert Andy Munro who had a hand in designing Abbey Road studios.

They produce “a really broad spectrum of work every year”, including a lot of radio pieces and recorded gigs, Mac Con Iomaire says.

Much of the focus is on contributing to the arts in a meaningful way, either by commissioning artists to create or affording them new opportunities – as one small example, local, emerging acts will open the shows at Féasta Ceoil an Spidéil.

“The genesis of Stiúideo Cuan is traced back to Charlie Lennon, the late composer,” he explains.

“It’s two years since Charlie passed. He died on June 2 2024, God rest him, the night after a Martin Hayes gig as it happens and he was present. He was extremely happy to see the success of the live music especially in Stiúideo Cuan.”

Lennon and his daughter Éilís set up Stiúideo Cuan around 1987 and operated it as a commercial recording studio.

De Dannan, Lúnasa and The Stunning were among those that availed of the facility during those halcyon years.

As time passed and music technology grew more advanced, Mac Con Iomaire says that the market for the place suffered.

“There wasn’t the need to go into a large commercial studio to record,” he says. “It was interesting to see the likes of Damien Rice at the time recording an album like O in their bedrooms basically. That changed the viability of a lot of studios, especially very high-end studios.”

University of Galway ended up running a music production course in Stiúideo Cuan for several years during the 2000s.

About ten years ago, with its facilities in decline, Charlie and Éilís Lennon collaborated with Mac Con Iomaire and began to breathe life back into the building.

They put funds into refurbishing and extending Stiúideo Cuan, developing the venue side of the business as well as updating its equipment. By the time Ireland emerged out of the pandemic, it was ready to go and ever since, Mac Con Iomaire says, it’s gone from strength to strength.

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“It’s not a dead room like a lot of studios are. It’s alive and there is a resonance in the room. It’s beautiful for strings. Orchestras love recording here.”

The life in the place comes in part from the light it gets from the sun over the bay.

It constitutes an inseparable tie to An Spidéal itself, and hammers home the importance of having a space like this in the village. Féasta Ceoil an Spidéil serves a similar reminder.

“The artists love it,” Mac Con Iomaire says.

“It’s amazing for the local community to know that they can rock up to their local venue and see these artists there.

"This has been going on for a few years now with the best of traditional music and it’s great to be developing it into contemporary music as well.

“We’ve a real loyal audience and it’s a cross-section of the community that does arrive… It’s really important as well that local venues, and rural venues, are subsidised to programme quality music and to pay artists well. It’s really important.”

Féasta Ceoil an Spidéil is sponsored by the arts council, Foras na Gaeilge and Ealaín na Gaeilge, without whom Mac Con Iomaire says the festival would not be possible.