Sunday Afternoon Concert: Seán & Ellen Potts - Fergal Scahill & Ryan Molloy - Colm McGonigle, George McAdam, Dan Gurney & Libby

Sunday Afternoon Concert: Seán and Ellen Potts - Fergal Scahill and Ryan Molloy - Colm McGonigle, George McAdam, Dan Gurney and Libby McCrohan

Seán and Ellen Potts

Seán Potts 

Seán Potts was born in 1967 into a family steeped in traditional music. His father, Seán, was a founding member of The Chieftains, while his great grandfather, John Potts, father of Tommie Potts, was a renowned uilleann piper who moved from South Wexford to Dublin in the 1890s. 

Seán has toured internationally and performed extensively, playing and recording with Bakerswell, the Donal Lunny Band, Na Connerys, Tommy Peoples, Kevin Glackin, Paddy Glackin, Ciaran Tourish, Arty McGlynn, Paul McGrattan, Siobhan Peoples, Steve Cooney, Paul Brady, Seán Potts Snr, John Blake, Seán Keane, Daoirí Farrell, Peadar Ó Riada & Ceoltóirí Chualann and Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh. He produced the solo recording Seán Potts, Traditional Music on the Uilleann Pipes (2002).

Appointed to the staff of the Irish Traditional Music Archive (ITMA) in December 2021, Seán headed an Arts Council Commissioned project A Portrait of an Artist: Seán Keane, screened at Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy 2022 and released publicly following Seán Keane’s sudden death in May 2023. Seán is author of Tommie Potts: The Sorrowful and the Great, published by ITMA in October 2025.

Ellen Potts (fiddle)

Ellen Potts was born in Dublin in 2003. The daughter of piper Seán Potts and a great-grandniece of Tommie Potts, she received tuition on the fiddle from Kevin Glackin and Doireann Glackin, and later from Liam O’Connor and Jesse Smith, and at the annual Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy. 

Ellen has appeared on several TG4 music programmes, including the recent Ceolaireacht series with Doireann Glackin. In 2024, she performed at ITMA’s Drawing from the Well Concert, celebrating the life and music of Tommie Potts, and in 2022 was part of the Ó Ghlúin go Glúin ensemble of young female artists at the Liam O’Flynn Concert. She studies Architecture at UCD.

Fergal Scahill and Ryan Molloy

Fergal Scahill

An accomplished musician, Fergal Scahill’s career spans more than two decades. Playing bodhrán from age two, by five he was performing with the Siamsa show in Galway. He has since earned numerous accolades, including All-Ireland titles on the fiddle, bodhrán and guitar accompaniment.

At 18, Fergal began his professional career. He has performed with shows including Ragus and Celtic Legends. His discography includes five solo projects, two albums with Freewheel, and seven with We Banjo 3. His social media project, Fergal’s Tune a Day, showcases his musicianship and collaborative skills with some 750 tunes recorded. 

Fergal has shared stages with musicians including Mairtín O’Connor, Wallis Bird, Gerry O’Connor, Mick Flannery, Máiread Ní Mhaonaigh, Sharon Shannon, Bela Fleck, Sam Bush, Billy Strings, Sierra Hull, and Brittany Haas. 

In 2020 he won Male Musician of the Year at the American Celtic Listener Supported Radio Awards and in 2021 One Day:: November Woods, featuring Ryan Molloy, won Album of the Year. In 2025 Fergal and Ryan collaborated on another album, The Gannet’s Dive. 

We Banjo 3 has earned accolades, including the Traditional Album of the Year from the Irish Times, Album of the Week from RTÉ Radio 1, and Best Folk Album at the 2018 RTÉ Folk Awards.

Ryan Molloy

Composer and pianist Ryan Molloy has performed to international audiences for more than twenty years. He was named TG4 Gradam Ceoil 2024 Composer of the Year, and was nominated for the RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards in 2020 and 2021.

Ryan has recorded on more than thirty albums as a pianist, composer and arranger with a repertoire spanning traditional Irish and contemporary classical. A much sought-after collaborator, he has worked with artists and ensembles including Fergal Scahill, Seán Óg Graham, Neil Martin, Paddy Glackin, Iarla Ó Lionáird, North Cregg, Barry Kerr, the Ulster Orchestra and the Irish Chamber Orchestra.

His music is broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Radio Ulster, RTÉ lyric fm, Radio 1 and Ráidió na Gaeltachta as well as BBC 2, UTV and TG4. Described as a ‘milestone’ in traditional piano performance, his acclaimed first solo recording Pianophony was released in 2019. Recent works including Casúir’s Cnaipí and Pianoboxing, showcase his innovative approach.

Colm McGonigle, George McAdam, Dan Gurney and Libby McCrohan

Colm McGonigle

Originally from Belfast, Colm was immersed in traditional music from a young age. His father taught him to play traditional Irish music on the concertina, and he later learned piano and the Irish harp. He was a stalwart of the traditional music scene in Cambridge whilst studying and working there, and enjoyed regular trips to London for sessions and teaching music. Notable performances included the Return to Camden Town Festival, the Club at the Ivy and the Royal Albert Hall. 

Now based in Dublin, Colm continues to be an active presence at traditional music festivals throughout Ireland and beyond, frequently appearing on national television and radio. 

In summer 2025, he featured as a soloist with the Ceol Mharlaí Chamber Orchestra at Féile Nasc, at an Chruit Bheo and at Electric Picnic. He also taught workshops at Rencontres Irlandaises de Tocane. We are delighted to welcome Colm once again back to London.

George McAdam

George McAdam is a tenor banjo player from Ballybay, in the heart of Co. Monaghan where he grew up in a musical family. He holds a number of All-Ireland titles and regularly performs and tutors at Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy, Joe Mooney and Scoil Éigse summer schools. 

George is also a talented drummer and member of the Blackwater Céilí Band, winning the All-Ireland Céilí Band title at Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann 2018. The band have since gone on to record two albums and recently featured on TG4’s Comhluadar Cheoil (2023). 

Dan Gurney 

Dan Gurney, born in upstate New York to artist parents, first picked up an accordion by chance in a toy store where Micho Russell happened to be playing. He learned Irish music from Galway-born concertina player Father Charlie Coen. He now lives in Bray with his wife Christina and young children. 

Dan grew up in the Hudson Valley town of Rhinebeck, a short train ride from the big city. He started on a toy button accordion but by age seven was playing the real thing. His chief musical inspiration was Fr. Charlie Coen, then serving a parish in nearby Red Hook. 

The musical priest instilled in Dan a passion for old-time traditional music played without flash or excessive speed. 

He has recorded a solo CD, duet albums with fiddler Dylan Foley and flute player Christina Dolphin, and two albumns with the band The Yanks.  He has appeared on Public Radio International, at the International Accordion Festival, and has won nine medals at various Fleadh Cheoil competitions.

Libby McCrohan

Libby McCrohan is an Irish traditional musician from Dublin. She plays a round back Greek bouzouki. Her approach to accompaniment is sensitive, subtle, and rhythmical, taking inspiration from the reg playing of uilleann pipers. Libby has performed all over Ireland and abroad and has featured on a number albums to date – including the critically-acclaimed ‘Heard a Long Gone Song’ by Lisa O’Neill, ‘Not Before Time… 39 Years in the Making’ by Páraic Mac Donnchadha, ‘The Devil’s Dream’ by Iarfhlaith Ó Domhnaill and Natalie Ní Chasaide, and ‘The Fog is Lifting’ with Bríd Harper and Sylvain Barou.

*Please note that all advertised concert times are door opening times. Performances will commence 30 minutes after doors open.