The sixth annual Irish Music Awards were presented by the Irish Music Association on January 25, 2014 at O’Malley’s Pub in Weston, Missouri. The awards were determined through online voting by the association’s members. [To continue reading the article and see the complete list of winners in 17 categories, click on the headline.]
Martin Joseph Fay, an Irish fiddler and bones player who was a founding member of The Chieftains, died Nov. 14. He was 76 and had been ill for some time. [To read the article in full, click on the headline.]
Bernard Noel “Banjo” Barney McKenna, the last original member of the Irish folk band The Dubliners and widely considered the most influential banjo player in Irish music, died at his kitchen table on April 5 while having a up of tea with a musician friend, He was 72 and had just completed a UK tour with The Dubliners in March to help mark the group’s 50th anniversary. McKenna also performed at a Dublin funeral the night before he died. [To read the article in its entirety, click on the headline.]
The 2011 Canadian Folk Music Awards were presented in Toronto, Ontario on Sunday evening, Dec. 4. Winners were named in 19 categories and a new Unsung Hero award was presented during a gala event at the Isabel Bader Theatre. Bruce Cockburn, Dave Gunning and Quebecois trio Genticorum each won two awards. [To read the article in its entirety and see a complete list of the award winners, click on the headline.]
