Renowned Donegal accordian player Dermot Byrne to feature on Music Network tour

Music Network is proud to announce a nationwide tour featuring Inishowen’s Dermot Byrne, as well as Kevin Burke, Noriana Kennedy and Jim Murray for February 2026, which includes a night in Letterkenny.

This is an unmissable, new collaboration featuring four extraordinary artists who have shared their music with audiences over four decades of Music Network's National Touring Programme.

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The programme will feature inspired performances of traditional and contemporary material from four artists whose collective experience and creativity have carved a deep impression on the landscape of traditional Irish music.

This tour runs from February 10 to March 1 and takes in Kerry, Clare, Cork, Wexford, Wicklow, Dublin, Louth, Donegal, Roscommon, Offaly, Galway, Mayo, London and Paris. Tickets are on sale now. They will be at the Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny, on Friday, February 20, at 8pm.

A Gradam Ceoil TG4 Musician of the Year, Dermot Byrne’s seemingly effortless playing, combined with great subtlety and a faultless ear, makes him one of the finest accordion players of his generation. Hailing from Burnfoot, Dermot was a member of the renowned Irish traditional music band Altan from 1994 to 2013.

He has also collaborated with Séamus and Manus McGuire, Sharon Shannon, Frankie Gavin and Bríd Harper. Outside of traditional music, he has recorded and performed with household names including Dolly Parton, John Prine, Vince Gill, Alison Krauss, Paul Brady and the late jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli. His recent recordings with Canadian fiddler Pierre Schryer (2Worlds United), French harpist Floriane Blancke (Dermot Byrne and Floriane Blancke), Yvonne Casey (As We Feel It) and Steve Cooney (The Donegal Melodeon) have received widespread critical acclaim.

Kevin Burke’s fiddle playing has been at the forefront of traditional music since the 1970s. His far-reaching solo album If the Cap Fits and his work with such distinguished performers as Arlo Guthrie, Kate Bush, Christy Moore and the Bothy Band established him as a ground-breaking artist.

Kevin has earned international acclaim in both Europe and America as a solo performer, a teacher and as a member of some of folk music’s foremost groups, including the exciting Celtic Fiddle Festival and Ireland’s long-admired and respected Patrick Street. He has been the recipient of prestigious awards, including Gradam Ceoil TG4 Musician of the Year 2016 and a National Heritage Fellowship, the USA's highest honour for excellence in the folk and traditional arts.

Half Irish and half Filipino, Noriana Kennedy possesses a captivating voice lauded by the Irish Times as 'a knockout: translucent and tenacious in equal measure'.

Since her debut album Ebb n Flow was released in 2011, her career has soared, touring extensively in the USA with renowned traditional group Solas and sharing the stage with highly respected artists like Pauline Scanlon, Eilís Kennedy, Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh and John Spillane. In 2013, Noriana joined Nicola Joyce and Noelie McDonnell to form the stunning songwriting trio The Whileaways.

Together with her bandmates, Noriana has contributed to four albums, earning several RTÉ Folk Award nominations along the way.

Joining them is Jim Murray, one of the world’s leading acoustic guitar players. For over 20 years, he has toured, performed and recorded with artists such as Sharon Shannon, Sinéad O’Connor, Steve Earle, Shane MacGowan, Séamus Begley, Mike McGoldrick, Altan and Mary Black. In 1998, he began his professional career, having been invited to tour Japan and Australia with accordion legend Séamus Begley, whilst also in the same year touring America with piano accordion ace Alan Kelly.

In 1999, Jim was invited to become a guitarist with world-renowned Irish musician Sharon Shannon and has recorded and toured with her across five continents. Jim had an extraordinary musical partnership with accordionist and singer Séamus Begley and their debut album Ragairne, released in 2001, received both The Irish Times and Hot Press Traditional Irish Music Album of the Year.