Youth and experience combine to bring All-Ireland Fleadh success for Dungloe duo

Seventeen-year-old Neil Kennedy from Dungloe won an All-Ireland medal in the Under-18 Accompaniment competition, having been placed second overall at the Fleadh Ceoil in Mullingar.

Neil's playing partner was Hughie Boyle, who proved that even in his seventies he is still able to compete with the best of them. He managed to impress not only his children but grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Neil is a fiddle player first and foremost but for this competition, he played the guitar while Hughie played the accordion.

Last month the pair became Ulster champions at the Ulster Fleadh in Dromore when they were placed first and lifted the Ulster trophy. That win qualified them for the All-Ireland Fleadh.

Hughie is the son of late Donegal fiddler Neilly Boyle of Cronashallog, Dungloe, and Hughie's daughter KT is playing with her friends and fellow musicians in the trad band ‘Cherish the Ladies’ on Saturday evening at the Fleadh, an event being screened by TG4 

Neil and Hughie will be there to cheer them on and anyone who would like to hear them playing they play in Leo's Tavern Meenaleck most Saturday nights.