Irish Hooley at The Crown Hotel

Irish Hooley at The Crown Hotel – Thursday 18th June 2026

The Crown Hotel (The Ivy Suite)

142-152 Cricklewood Broadway, London NW2 3ED

7pm doors

Tickets: £22.50/ £7 U18s

IMDL's Annual profile and fundraiser Concert Featuring:

The McCarthy Family

Andrew Caden, Conor McDonagh, Caoilte Morrison

Chan Reid

The Trad Gathering

Camden Set Dancers

Stocaí Bána

Details of IMDL's Annual Grand Draw available at www.irishmusicinlondon.org

(All proceeds towards IMDL's year round cultural work, including 'Return to London Town Festival')

The McCarthy Family

Jacqueline (concertina), Marion (uilleann pipes and whistle), Bernadette (fiddle and piano) and Tommy Jun. (fiddle) were born in London to Irish parents who had emigrated to England from the west of Ireland in the early 1950s. Their father Tommy was a piper and concertina player from Kilmihil Co. Clare so it was inevitable that they grew up listening to traditional music and played with all the legendary players from Ireland who were living in London. Musicians like Máirtín Byrnes, Raymond Roland, Roger Sherlock, Danny Meehan, Paddy Taylor and Bobby Casey were all part of a thriving music scene that they experienced first hand. They also recall meeting John Kelly and Willie Clancy during frequent visits to Ireland.

With their father Tommy they performed as a family group throughout Ireland and the UK - including The Royal Albert Hall, London. They now live in the west of Ireland where they are involved in playing and teaching traditional music on a regular basis and at annual events such as the Willie Clancy Summer School in Co. Clare. Tommy Jun. owns a number of bars in the Boston area which have become popular venues for traditional music. The music they play is in the west Clare style which they inherited from their father Tommy who died in 2000. They can be heard on Jacqueline’s solo album
“The Hidden Note” (1999), “The Family Album” (2002) and the documentary film "Handing Down the Tunes" (2008) covering the life of their father. Marion is also featured on “Mná Na bPíob Uilleann, Vol.1” (2023) a unique album of six female uilleann pipers.

Andrew Caden, Conor McDonagh, Caoilte Morrison

Conor Mc Donagh is a flute player from Killavil, Co. Sligo, a place known around the world for its rich history of music. Conor began playing the flute when he was eight years of age and learned from the flute extraordinaire Michael Hurley. Conor developed an interest in both old and young generations of flute players, such as Seamus Tansey, John McKenna, Mick Woods, and Harry Bradley. Conor has played at many festivals and concerts and alongside many well-known musicians.

Originally from Bethesda, Maryland, USA, Andrew began learning the fiddle at a young age under Brian Conway. His principal musical influences on the fiddle include Michael Coleman, James 'Lad' O’Beirne, Seán McGuire, and Frankie Gavin. Now based in Dublin, Andrew has been doing work at the Irish Traditional Music Archive since 2024.

Conor and Andrew released a duet album called Across the Atlantic in 2025, under Racket Records. The duo performs regularly around Ireland and abroad at traditional music festivals, and they have been recognised as promising young traditional musicians.

Caoilte Morrison is a flute and piano player from Rathfarnham, Dublin, and has been playing Irish traditional music from a young age. Born into a musical family, he was fortunate to grow up surrounded by music. His eldest brother Oisín shared guidance and encouragement with him from his early years, and he also learned from older local musicians. Caoilte draws inspiration from legendary North Connaught-style flute players, including John McKenna, Mick Woods, Séamus Tansey, John Joe Gardiner, Tom Morrison, and Kevin Henry. Caoilte is deeply invested in learning the history and life stories of traditional musicians, especially those who emigrated from Ireland to America and England. This has shaped his playing and understanding of the tradition, grounding it in respect, curiosity, and a genuine love for the music of Ireland.

Chan Reid

Chan was born into a musical family in Dublin and was taught classical piano and singing from a young age by her grandmother Joan Kelly. Chan started to immerse herself in sean nós singing and Irish fiddle when she was at university in Dublin and has never looked back.

Chan is an active folk and traditional singer, song collector and musician as part of the Irish diaspora in England, where she chairs a Comhaltas branch in the South East and teaches Irish fiddle and singing to adults and children. She has toured extensively as a solo artist and guest performer and has participated in a number of TG4 Irish language series and music documentaries as a sean nós singer.

Chan is a member of Celtic folk duo Bold Reilly and enjoys a full and varied folk festival tour schedule each year playing songs she has written, as well as songs from her ever expanding Irish repertoire. She is a sought after workshop leader in unaccompanied and harmony singing and has recently formed a new close harmony folk duo The Fox In The Reeds with her partner.

During lockdown, Chan set herself the task of teaching herself the guitar and increasingly accompanies herself on the songs she writes on her treasured Martin Coletti jazz guitar as well as her latest acquisition, an Austrian lute. Chan also enjoys working her Shruti box into her sean nós singing and exploring the cross over and connection between Irish and other genres of folk singing.

Chan was ITMA’s (Irish Traditional Music Archive) Saothar Composer of the month -  December 2024.

The Trad Gathering

IMDL’s London-wide youth project The Trad Gathering features 30 young traditional Irish musicians led by Karen Ryan and Pete Quinn. The Trad Gathering was jointly commissioned in 2008 by the BBC Proms and Return to Camden Town Festival. In recent years, the group have been celebrating music from the repertoires of prominent members of the London Irish music scene, including: Bryan Rooney, The McCarthy Family, Roger Sherlock, Lucy Farr, Danny Meehan, John Bowe, Julia Clifford and Mick O’Connor. The Trad Gathering have performed at the Royal Albert Hall, Cadogan Hall, Kings Place, Royal Festival Hall, Mayor of London’s St Patrick’s Day Festival at Trafalgar Square and more.

This evening the group will be performing music from the repertoire of Galway flute player, composer and flute maker, Marcus Hernon.

Camden Set Dancers

Cork’s Tom Kelleher teaches weekly set dancing classes for all levels at the London Irish Centre, Camden on Thursday evenings. Anne Drury teaches weekly céilí and set dancing classes for beginners at Brendan the Navigator, Highgate Hill on Monday evenings. Camden Set Dancers have been hosting their monthly Sunday céilí for over 40 years now – we are delighted to welcome a representation of London’s great set dancing community to perform for us this evening. For more information about classes, see ‘Tom’s Irish Set Dancing London’ on Facebook or contact: tompkelleher@btinternet.com

Stocaí Bána

Dublin’s Jackie Quirke honed much of her Connacht Irish and Sean Nós singing in Conamara’s Gaeltacht region, in Galway. She was one of the community  members of the cast of John B Keane’s play ‘The Bodhrán Makers’ which ran at the Galtymore in the 1990s. She is also a member of ‘In Good Company’ (formerly ‘Fair Plé Ladies of London’) who have performed at Cadogan Hall, Irish Cultural Centre and at Return to London Town Festival. Jackie is the regular ‘Bean a Tí’ at the relatively newly founded, weekly ‘Learn Irish through Singing’ sessions on Wednesdays during term time, from 7pm, upstairs in the Sir Colin Campbell, Kilburn. Everyone is welcome to learn and enjoy the group singing, all levels of Irish from complete beginners upwards, welcome. Fáilte roimh cách. Stocaí Bána features a number of singers from these Wednesday gatherings.

For more details about IMDL's year round cultural events and the annual Return to London Town Festival see www.irishmusicinlondon.org and www.returntolondontown.org