Manus McGuire

Manus McGuire is an acclaimed Irish fiddle player whose exceptional musical gift became widely recognized when he won the prestigious Fiddler of Dooney Irish national fiddle competition at age 14. Since then he has gone on to record fourteen albums including: four with Buttons and Bows, two with Moving Cloud, three with Brock McGuire Band, two with his brother Seamus McGuire and three solo fiddle CDs:   Saffron and Blue,( Green Linnet Records),  Fiddlewings (Compass Records) and The Copperplate Sessions ( Independent Label)

Earle Hitchner from the Irish Echo and Wall Street Journal commented on Fiddlewings( 2006) saying it “ exudes class from first to last note played.  Variety, virtuosity and vitality are the lasting impressions created by this recording”.

Of Saffron and Blue,( 2000) Bill Margeson, music critic with The Irish American News commented “When the buyer purchases this album, he or she is getting in on not only a wonderful piece of work, but a musician at the peak of his powers.”

McGuire is honored to have been voted “male Irish Traditional Musician of the Year in the U.S.” in 2006 byThe Irish American News in Chicago and to have received the Bravo Award from Trad Magazine in France in 2007

Brock McGuire Band, which he cofounded in 2000, was awarded “ Irish instrumental band of the decade “ by The Irish American News. That band’s latest album Green Grass Blue Grass (Compass Records 2012) is a collaboration with 14-time Grammy award winner Ricky Skaggs.  It celebrates the musical connections between Irish traditional and American Appalachian music and was awarded “Top of the World Album Award” by the prestigious U.K. world music magazine, Songlines . In 2014, a full orchestral scoring of their work was commissioned and they performed a full programme with the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra in Jackson, Mississippi, in March that year.

McGuire’s recordings with Buttons and Bows were celebrated in Ireland and in the U.S. and from one of these albums ( The First Month of Summer, 1987) the piece“ Inisheer” was used as a soundtrack for the movie The Good Mother starring Diane Keaton and  Liam Neeson. His 2015 recording with the same group (The Return of Spring) was awarded traditional album of the year by the Irish Times.  His most recent solo fiddle album, The Copperplate Sessions, is a “definite must have for one’s collection, there is an absolute joy in his play that is unmistakable and intoxicating”. Mary Ann McTeague Keifer, Irish American News.

Manus McGuire continues to perform and teach fiddle music at the highest level primarily in the United States, and last year alone, he has taught fiddle at Swannanoa NC and at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA in addition to performing a series of spring concerts for the Irish American Cultural Institute. He continues to support the links that exist between Irish music and its historical journey into the United States.

For the O’Flaherty Retreat 2020, he brings a wealth of teaching experience of Irish traditional fiddle in general and of the Sligo style, which is so admired by many, in particular. It will be his third visit to the retreat and one he eagerly looks forward to.