Attic Sessions #4 – 27th August – Aidan Connolly & Bryan O’Leary

Tickets for “The Attic Sessions” concert on Wednesday 27th August 2025 featuring Aidan Connolly & Bryan O’Leary.

• Artists:Aidan Connolly & Bryan O’Leary
• Date: Wednesday 27th August 2025
• Time: 7:30pm (doors 7pm)
• Venue: The Attic, concert venue at Hotel Doolin, Doolin, Co. Clare (eircode V95 DE2X)

“The Attic Sessions” is a concert series that features some of Ireland’s finest musicians, including Award-winning artists. The 60-mins concerts are acoustic and take place in the intimate, candle-lit atmosphere of The Attic at Hotel Doolin. It is a unique opportunity to experience the very best of Irish traditional music in a cozy and welcoming setting where musicians can share their magic with a small, privileged audience.

Aidan Connolly

Aidan was born into a musical family in Rathfarnham, Dublin, as has been playing from a very early age. While Aidan’s music is rooted in the rich heritage of Sliabh Luachra, his mother’s native area, he has listened and played extensively with musicians from all over Ireland and beyond, forging a mature playing style informed by many diverse influences. Between 2018 and 2020 he relocated to Spain, where he was heavily influenced by the diverse musical landscape to be found across that country.
Aidan has released four commercial albums to date; Be Off (2016), Away On Up the Road (2019, with John Daly), The Portland Bow (2021), and Keane/Connolly/McGorman (2023, with Pádraic Keane and Fergus & Ruairí McGorman). He has performed widely in Ireland, the UK, Europe and Japan and was nominated for the category of Best Folk Instrumentalist at the RTÉ Folk Awards in 2022 and 2025. He is currently representing John Sheahan in the stage show, The Dubliners Encore, which is touring nationally and internationally in 2024-25.
Aidan currently works as Sliabh Luachra Musician in Residence and has released a tune book titled Tobar Luachmhar.

Bryan O’Leary
Bryan O’Leary is an award winning Sliabh Luachra musician, who comes from the townland of Tureencahill, which is situated halfway between the villages of Ballydesmond and Gneeveguilla, in the heart of Sliabh Luachra, in County Kerry. He started playing the button accordion at the age of ten, shortly after his grandfather, the renowned Sliabh Luachra button accordionist, Johnny O’Leary, passed away in 2004. In 2014 at the University of Limerick, Bryan’s dedication to the music of Sliabh Luachra was rewarded, when he was the recipient of the prestigious TG4 Young Musician of the Year award. In 2015, he recorded a critically acclaimed album of Sliabh Luachra music along with Flute player Colm Guilfoyle titled ‘Where The Bog Is’. He graduated from the University of Limerick with a BA in Irish Music in 2016 and an MA in Ethnomusicology in 2018.
Bryan has appeared on numerous television and radio programmes on RTÉ & TG4 down through the years. In more recent times he has featured on ‘The Today Show with Daithí & Maura’ & John Creedon’s ‘Atlas of Ireland’, both of which aired on RTÉ 1. He has also toured the world through his music and performed in countries such as the United States, Japan, China, the Netherlands, Austria and the UK.
In 2020, Bryan was commissioned by RTÉ to compose some new music in response to the Covid-19 lockdown. This initiative called ‘Faoiseamh’ was founded by RTÉ The Rolling Wave presenter Aoife Nic Cormaic, and supported by the Irish Traditional Music Archive (ITMA). These compositions from Bryan are available from the ITMA website. In December 2020, Bryan released a 7 track EP featuring all self-composed music titled ‘Tranquility in Tureencahill’, under the new Sliabh Luachra Label by Eoin Stan O’Sullivan from Newmarket, Co. Cork.