Dr Éamonn Ó Bróithe

Éamonn is originally from Dún Laoghaire, county Dublin but he moved to Conamara in 1980 and he has spent most of his life living and working in various places in the gaeltacht (Irish-speaking areas) in Galway and Mayo. His parents encouraged an interest in all aspects of the Gaelic tradition and he began learning the uilleann Pipes from Leon Rowsome in 1972. He began singing some years later in his teens, but visits to the gaeltacht in county Waterford, and his acquaintance with the iconic singers — Pádraig and Nioclás Tóibín in particular — ignited in him a life-long interest in the heritage of the Déise and in the literary-song tradition of Munster. He is the most recent recipient of Gradam Shean-Nós Cois Life.