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O'Flaherty Irish Music Retreat

Teaching Traditional Irish Music

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Bouzouki

Kevin Alewine

February 10, 2019 By Ken Fleming

Photo of Kevin Alewine

Kevin has been involved in Irish music since about 1979 after many years of interest in folk and jazz idioms. He has performed with Ken and Peggy Fleming continuously since 1988 and was a founding member of the Lone Star Ceili Band and the TIMES Band & Session Players. Kevin is moderately proficient on flute, whistles, guitar and cittern, but hopeless on bodhran.. … [Read more...] about Kevin Alewine

Joseph Beckey

June 9, 2022 By Ken Fleming

Photo of Joseph Beckey

Joseph Beckey comes from a choral tradition until discovering Irish music at a pub in 2008. One of the musicians taught a class “Traditional Songs In Harmony” at the Center for Irish Music in St. Paul, MN.  After that, he was hooked.  He has taken numerous song classes as well as learning to play mandolin, guitar, bouzouki and bodhrán. Soon after learning his first chords, Joseph was … [Read more...] about Joseph Beckey

Pat Broaders

January 21, 2019 By Ken Fleming

Photo of Pat Broaders

Pat Broaders grew up in Dublin, the son of parents from Wexford. He began his journey in traditional music at the age of eight. He started out on the whistle, and later moved on to theuilleann pipes under the tutelage of Leon Rowsome. He took up the bouzouki in 1988, inspired by the sounds he grew up hearing from bands like Planxty, and the popularity of the instrument in Dublin’s vibrant … [Read more...] about Pat Broaders

Matthew Cook

November 4, 2018 By Ken Fleming

Matthew Cook has been singing all his life, but when the Irish genre took hold of him, the songs in his head were forever changed. The music touched a part of his heart and his soul that lay dormant, and he was instantly connected into the long history of Irish music. Now he plays and sings Irish Music in the DFW area as much as he possibly can. He plays with the band Slugger’s Rule, and played … [Read more...] about Matthew Cook

John Coyne

January 10, 2025 By Ashlie Hatch

Photo of John Coyne

John Coyne, a native of Limerick City has been based in Boston for the past 17 years. Prior to that he has lived in Rhode Island, Mississippi, Florida, Dublin and Pennsylvania. Throughout this time, he has played traditional Irish music primarily on bouzouki. Over the years he has forged a unique self-taught style of accompaniment that pairs melodic counter melody with a driving rhythmic backing … [Read more...] about John Coyne

Jimmy Crowley

February 27, 2019 By Ken Fleming

Photo of Jimmy Crowley

Jimmy Crowley has been a central figure in the Irish folk scene since the enthusiastic reception of his debut album "The Boys of Fairhill" in 1977. With his band Stokers Lodge, their mission was to present the street ballads of Cork city complimented by the ornate folk songs of the rural hinterland of Cork and Kerry in an exciting orchestration of uilleann pipes, concertina, autoharp, harmonium, … [Read more...] about Jimmy Crowley

Frances Cunningham

January 20, 2019 By Ken Fleming

Frances Cunningham is a native of Southeast Texas and fell into Irish music at an early age. She learned the Irish Bouzouki and became a founding member of the Celtic rock band SixMileBridge which recorded and toured heavily from the late 90s into the 2000s. She then moved to Nashville where she picked up the Tenor Banjo and since then has gone on to be an in demand accompanist and session … [Read more...] about Frances Cunningham

Rick Cunningham

February 23, 2019 By Ken Fleming

Photo of Rick Cunningham

Multi-instrumentalist Rick Cunningham has played traditional Irish music for over 40 years, playing in several bands in the southern US during that time. He primarily plays mandolin and button accordion, and also plays bouzouki, guitar, and whistle. Rick placed 1st in solo mandolin in the Midwest Fleadh Cheoiland, competed in the All Ireland in 2006, and he has taught at several festivals and folk … [Read more...] about Rick Cunningham

Cedar Dobson

January 24, 2026 By Ashlie Hatch

Photo of Cedar Dobson holding a low whistle

Cedar Dobson is a versatile tin whistle player, multi-instrumentalist, composer, performer, and producer hailing from California near Yosemite National Park. She plays high and low whistles, Irish flute, silver flute, Bodhrán, bouzouki, mandolin, and other instruments. Cedar discovered her deep passion for Traditional Irish music after discovering the tin whistle at an American Civil War … [Read more...] about Cedar Dobson

Ken Fleming

February 23, 2019 By Ken Fleming

Photo of Ken Fleming

Ken Fleming has been playing Irish music for more than four decades in the Dallas area on tenor banjo, button accordion, concertina, guitar, bouzouki and mandolin. His love of Irish music led him to become involved in 1983 in the formation of the Southwest Celtic Music Association and North Texas Irish Festival of which he was the founding president and founding director respectively. In the … [Read more...] about Ken Fleming

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Testimonials

Former Student

Overall, I think the retreat was great. It truly is a ‘retreat’, i.e., you get a chance to get away from it all for a good solid weekend and enjoy learning new things, meeting new people, and having a great time. Good job to the organizers and the people that put the effort into this thing.  Keep it up!

Read all our testimonials…

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O’Flaherty Irish Music Retreat

Traditional Irish Music Education Society (TIMES)
1320 Navaho Trail
Richardson, TX 75080
(469) 215-1840
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