The Comhaltas Elders Of Fiddling Awards

Following on from the initial Elders of Fiddling awards at Féile Oriel 2023, we will be delighted to present awards to another six pillars of Irish traditional fiddling in 2024.

It had been a long-standing aspiration of the festival organiser that a tribute should be paid to those gatekeepers of the fiddling tradition over the past decades. Those men and women who have been flag carriers, maybe teachers, mentors and who have inspired generations of younger musicians to take up the fiddle and bow and start their own journey. Those same people who have kept the tradition of the session alive in their own communities and many of whom have been stalwarts in Comhaltas Ceoltoirí Eireann locally, provincially, nationally and some of them internationally.

 We wish to acknowledge their life long commitment to traditional Irish music, enjoy listening to them on stage, telling their own stories and witnessing a collective of our greatest exponents of our unique Irish fiddling tradition. There will be a special award afforded to each of this year’s recipients. These awards will be designed and Made in Monaghan by renowned sculptor, Marc Kelly and we would also like to thank Labhras Ó Murchú for sponsoring said trophies.

 After much deliberation it was decided that we would identify one such “elder” from each of the four provinces of Ireland and one each from UK and USA.

Sculptor Marc Kelly has created this unique trophy from Cedar of Lebanon which is a very rare timber. It has been hand-cut in the shape of a fiddle outline with the imprint lasered into the timber. Each of the 6 recipients of this year’s Elder of Fiddling awards will take home this unique piece on May 6th. The trophy pictured here will be winging its way to Séamus Connolly in North Carolina.