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O'Flaherty Irish Music Retreat

Teaching Traditional Irish Music

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  • Info
    • About Our Retreat
    • Retreat History
    • Enrollment Tips
    • For Newcomers
    • FAQs
    • Schedule of Events
    • Updates
    • Fees
    • Payment Policies
    • Register
    • Scholarships
    • Age Exception Policy
    • Ways to Support
    • O’Flaherty Marketplace
    • Retreat Flyer
    • Blog
  • Learning
    • About Course Levels
    • Core Courses
    • Enrichment Classes
    • Workshops
    • Informances
    • Luthier Clinics
    • Private Lessons
    • Student Resources
  • Staff
    • Core Instructors
    • Enrichment Class Instructors
    • Workshop Presenters
    • Guest Performers
    • Session Leaders
  • Events
    • Instructor Concerts
    • Instructor-Led Sessions
    • Nightly Sessions
    •  Streamed Concerts
    • Ceilis
    • Guest Concerts
  • Lodging & Meals
    • Lodging
    • Lodging Waiting List Request
    • Meals & Refreshments
    • Meal Menu
  • Travel
    • Maps & Directions
    • Site Map
    • Shuttle Bus Services
  • Forms
    • Contact Us
    • Donations
    • Sign Up for Email Updates
    • Age Exception Request
    • Scholarship Application
    • Lodging Waiting List Request
    • Class Waiting List
    • Airport Shuttle Bus Request
    • Special Needs for Lodging Form
    • Workshop Proposal Form
  • Archives
    • Past Instructors
    • Past Enrichment Classes
    • Past Workshops
    • Archive of Past Retreats
    • Videos
    • Irish Artist in America Achievement Award

Tommy O’Sullivan

February 23, 2019 By Ken Fleming

Photo of Tommy O'Sullivan

Acclaimed as “one of the great contemporary folk voices of Ireland” Tommy O’Sullivan is also a stellar guitarist who has been one of the hidden treasures of traditional Irish music for many years. He has toured throughout North America and Europe, appearing at many major venues and festivals. Tommy has always kept an active recording schedule, having recorded three albums as a member of Sliabh Notes and a duet album with Bothy Band piper Paddy Keenan as well as two solo albums Legacy and Song Ablaze.

Born in London into a family with their roots deep in the heart of the West Kerry Gaeltacht. Tommy was always a keen singer, and by the time the family moved back to their native West Kerry in 1972, he had already begun playing guitar. By his mid teens he started performing locally in Dingle. A self-taught musician, he dabbled with open guitar tunings and eventually settled into the DADGAD tuning, a trademark sound of his later recordings.

Moving back to London, Tommy took a keen interest in the English folk club scene. The influences of musicians like Barry Dransfield and Martin Simpson can be heard in his rendition of ‘The Grey Funnel Line’ which he recorded on the Sliabh Notes album Along Blackwater’s Banks in 2003. In the spring of ’86 he travelled to the U.S. with fiddle player Tommy McCarthy.They performed as ‘in-flight entertainers’ for Virgin Atlantic airlines, a feat that prompted a headline in the evening press proclaiming “The First Ceili at 5000 Feet!”

Tommy has also toured or performed with “Ashplant”, a Copenhagen-based band with Danish and Irish members. Ashplant regularly toured and played at festivals all over Scandinavia. Returning to Ireland in 1992, he released his acclaimed debut album Legacy featuring Matt Cranitch and Steve Cooney.

Shortly after the release of Legacy, Matt,Tommy and box player Donal Murphy formed “Sliabh Notes.” In 1997, Tommy also began touring regularly with ex-Bothy Band virtuoso piper Paddy Keenan. Having featured on Paddy’s solo album Na Keen Affair,Tommy booked a sellout tour of Ireland for the duo. They later went on to record the much acclaimed album The Long Grazing Acre which was released on the Compass label in 2003.The pair continue to tour and appear at festivals worldwide. Song Ablaze, Tommy’s long overdue second solo album recorded in 2006 is an ambitious project including both traditional and contemporary Irish and American songs performed by international music greats on both sides of the Atlantic.

Tommy and his wife Saundra whom he met at the O’Flaherty Irish Music Retreat when he last taught in 2007 live in Dingle where they operate one of Ireland’s top live music pubs — the “O’Sullivan’s Courthouse Pub.” They also tour as a duo regularly in the U.S.

Tommy
O'Sullivan

Instructor – Guitar

2007, 2016

Testimonials

Former Student

I really appreciated the welcoming tone of the retreat.  It is a very safe place for beginners to be, and all of us have been and will again be beginners on new instruments.  This came through in the attitudes of the instructors, organizers, session leaders.  It seems to me that this is the core, the soul of this retreat.

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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