Hailing from a West Kerry musical family, Cormac Begley is a solo bass, baritone, treble and piccolo concertina player.

He plays in a range of collaborations with Liam O Connor, Rushad Eggleston, Liam Ó Maonlaí and Lisa O'Neill, and is the founder of the Airt Residential School and the award-winning Tunes in the Church live concert series in Galway and Dublin. Cormac was nominated for RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Instrumentalist of the Year in 2018 and 2019, and his debut solo album received nine 5-star reviews and was shortlisted for the Irish Times Album of the Year 2018.

His popular TG4 musical travelogue Slí Na Mbeaglaoich is currently broadcasting on RTÉ 2 on Wednesdays at 8 pm - catch up here via RTÉ Player.  

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In September, Cormac will take to the road in a new collaboration with the superb Ye Vagabonds as part of a Music Network nationwide tour with concerts in Dún Laoghaire, Sligo, Cork, Baile Mhúirne, Dublin, Ennis, Stradbally, Clifden and Letterkenny from 17th – 26th September. For more information, go here.

We asked Cormac for his choice cultural picks...

FILM

I am a big fan of the Cork-born filmmaker Pat Collins, and I enjoyed watching Silence, his fictional feature about a sound recordist who returns to Ireland for the first time in 15 years to record landscapes free from man-made sound, and Song of Granite, a documentary film about the life of the legendary sean nós singer Joe Heaney. I would also recommend watching Mannix Flynn's documentary Land Without God.

MUSIC

I love listening to recordings of the late fiddle player Paddy Canny and sitting down to hear my uncle, Tommy 'an Lord' Ó Conchubhair, play the accordion. Rushad Eggleston, the cello goblin, is class. Check out his hits Fluffy Arabian Cat Disease and I Peed on a Bird. Stephanie Keane is a class dancer and I'm also a big fan of the 'Chief', Lisa O'Neill.

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BOOK

An Beál Bocht by Myles na gCopaleen is a hilarious satirical book, available in both Irish and English and written by Brian O'Nolan or Flann O'Brien.

Brian O'Nolan, AKA Flann O'Brien.

THEATRE

Swan Lake /Loch na hEala produced by Micheal Keegan Dolan is brilliant. It is a dance performance interwoven with storytelling, song and live music performed by a company of 13 world-class performers. If you ever get the chance to see it, just go.

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TV

I don't own a television so I rarely watch tv programmes. I'd much rather play a few tunes.

GIG

I will be hitting the road on a nine-date nationwide Music Network tour with Ye Vagabonds from 17 – 26 September. We recently spent a week in west Kerry working on material and I’m really looking forward to joining Brían and Diarmuid on the tour. Tickets are available here.

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Art: I love three visual artists who live and work locally to me – painters Liam O'Neill, Áine Ní Chíobháin and Carol Cronin. If you're ever in West Kerry when their galleries are open, I highly recommend checking them out.

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PODCAST

TherapyTalks with host Chris Place is a great podcast. Chris is an experienced psychotherapist and he talks to various guests about their lives, their challenges and what helps them find their way forward in the world. He talks to therapists and researchers too about the models of therapy and how these different approaches can be used at different times for different people. It's A1.

THE NEXT BIG THING...

Outdoor concerts from 'Beauty' the campervan. I'm starting a new outdoor concert series from my campervan that will be held in secret locations throughout the country. I will be doing solo tours and organising tours for musicians and singers across a variety of genres. If you're interested in learning more about this and being notified about concerts near you, go here.

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Cormac takes to the road with Ye Vagabonds for concerts in Dún Laoghaire, Sligo, Cork, Baile Mhúirne, Dublin, Ennis, Stradbally, Clifden and Letterkenny from 17th – 26th September. For more information, go here.