Galway artist Nollaig Casey has been chosen as one of the latest recipients of Arts Council’s annual Deis Recording and Publication Award.
Nollaig Casey is one of fifteen successful applicants to receive up to €10,000 for a traditional arts recording project.
The Deis Recording and Publication Award supports standalone traditional arts recording projects, as well as collaborative recording projects between the traditional arts and other artforms.
These recording projects are vital to the preservation and transmission of traditional oral artforms, which often face unique archival challenges and can struggle to reach general audiences.
Nollaig Casey is one of Ireland’s most acclaimed fiddle players, with an international reputation for excellence in traditional music performance and composition.
With her late husband, the renowned guitarist Arty McGlynn, she recorded critically-acclaimed albums ‘Lead The Knave’ (winner of the Belfast Telegraph Arts and Entertainment Award 1992) and ‘Causeway’.
Versed in traditional and classical performance styles, she has played on over a hundred recordings, performed and recorded with Planxty, Van Morrison, Liam O’Flynn, Dónal Lunny, among others, and was featured soloist in films such as ‘Waking Ned’ and ‘Dancing at Lunasa’.
Composition commissions include those for Music Network (2024) and (with her sisters) for Cork Folk Festival (2018). She was ‘Traditional Artist in Residence’ at UCC (2021).
She plays with ‘Cherish the Ladies’, and her sisters Máire and Mairéad Ní Chathasaigh (‘The Casey Sisters). TG4’s Sé Mo Laoch, featuring Nollaig and her sister Máire’s life in music, aired in 2020.
The Deis Recording and Publication Award also prioritises projects which centre on the publication of work such as tutors, tune collections and critical writing.
This further benefits the traditional arts community by expanding the resources available to artists of all levels.
