Meet the teachers

Zoë Conway

Fiddle

Irish fiddle player, Zoë Conway, is a prodigious talent, equally at home in both traditional Irish and classical styles.

Zoë has performed across the globe, both as a solo artist and also playing with international acts such as Riverdance, Damien Rice, Rodrigo y Gabriella, Lisa Hannigan, Nick Cave and Lou Reed among others.

She is a holder of the much coveted All-Ireland Senior Fiddle Champion title, winning the prestigious competition in 2001. She was voted Best Traditional Female of the Year in Irish Music Magazine and she is also a featured musician on the current Leaving Certificate music syllabus in Ireland.

Louise Mulcahy

Flute & uilleann pipes

Louise Mulcahy began playing the tin whistle at age five and a few years later moved on to flute, Matt Molloy and Eamonn Cotter becoming formative influences on her style.

At thirteen she took up uilleann pipes, taught by Dave Hegarty in Tralee and in monthly master-classes at NPU in Dublin. One of the few female performers on what is a male-dominated instrument, she featured on the NPU compilation A New Dawn in 1999, and has taught at both the Chris Langan Piping Tionól in Toronto and the East Coast Piping Tionól in the Catskills, USA. A primary-level teacher in Co. Meath, she is the only person in the fleadh’s history to have won four senior All-Ireland titles in the one day.

John McIntyre

Guitar

John McIntyre grew up in the Cooley Mountains of north County Louth where he took up guitar at 8 years of age. He began his career as electric guitarist with the successful indie band, The Revs, with whom he performed on many famous stages and festivals.John studied classical guitar and piano for many years, and from early childhood was immersed in the language, songs and traditional dance music of south west Donegal - his father's homeplace.

Together, folk duo Zoë Conway and John Mc Intyre have been described as “simply one of the best folk duos on the planet” (BBC), and audiences in Ireland and beyond keep coming back for more.

Sarah Fennell

Modern Irish dance

Sarah is a professional dance artist and teacher. In 2019 she completed two MA programmes in Traditional Dance performance and Contemporary Dance performance at the Irish World Academy, University of Limerick.

Sarah has toured nationally and internationally with many dance companies as a traditional Irish dancer and also as a contemporary dance artist.

She is now living in Dublin and continues to develop and research her artistic practice. She has recently developed a public online dance blog called 'Dance and 'Self'' (funded by the Arts Council of Ireland) which she uses as a way to integrate her interest in dance research, philosophy and body knowledge, as well as to develop her practice in dance and dance making.

Aoife McCabe

Sean-nós dance & Harp

Aoife is a traditional Irish Sean Nós dancer, Set dancer, and musician based in Monaghan, Ireland. She has a BA in Irish Dance Performance from the Irish World Academy, University of Limerick. Aoife has a particular interest in the rhythmical relationships between music, song and dance. She is also a musician and plays the button accordion and harp.

Aoife has received many All Ireland titles in music and dance, including most recently, Feile na Mí. She was also awarded 'Gradam na hEigse' for her particular contribution in the fields of education, scholarship, planning, vision, etc.

To date, Aoife has performed all over Ireland and has also travelled abroad on numerous occasions to perform and teach dance.

Maranna Sweeney (McCloskey)

Traditional singing

Maranna McCloskey is an Irish folk singer/songwriter from The Benedy outside Dungiven, Co.Derry. Coming from a highly musical family, music, song and dance were a large part of Maranna’s childhood and adolescence. Maranna displayed real talent for singing as a child and regularly participated in fleadhs and seisiúns. When she was still a student, she joined local traditional band Óige with whom she performed at numerous music festivals throughout Ireland, the UK and Europe. In 2008, Maranna released her first solo album, ‘At Last’, comprising old traditional songs and a number of her own compositions.

Alana Flynn

Bodhrán

Alana Flynn is a bodhrán player from Mullaghbawn, County Armagh. She started playing at the age of 8, winning many county and Ulster medals and contending in the All-Ireland on two occasions.

She has been influenced by a range of bodhrán players; in particular Eamon Murray and John Joe Kelly but will always be grateful for being introduced to the bodhrán by Fergal O’Brien.

Despite her young age, she had the privilege of playing alongside some of the most amazing musicians and bands like, KAN, The Ollam and Mary Dillon and hopes to continue to do so in the future.

Brendan T. Monaghan

Whistles, grúpa ceoil

Brendan is from Banbridge in Northern Ireland and has worked as a professional folk musician since 1991. He is a multi-instrumentalist specialised in uilleann pipes (Irish bagpipes) and tin whistles.

Back in Ireland, he was teaching in primary and secondary level schools as well as in several Comhaltas branches. He has several years of experience teaching music to children and adults alike.

Cecilie Stensrud

Choir

Cecilie started out with modern Irish dance in 2008 and has since then developed her passion for Irish music and more traditional dance styles. She is currently the only one in Norway to teach Irish ‘sean nós’ or ‘old style’ dance.

She has conducted the Mná Oslo Irish Choir since 2022.

Åse Kristine Waglen

Ceili

Åse Kristine Waglen teaches Irish dance at the dance school Sound-Irish dance Factory in Oslo and is a member of the Sound- Irish Dance Company. She took up Irish dancing at 16 and began teaching only a short time after this. Her main motivation is always to give people the opportunity to enjoy Irish music through dancing and community building.

Åse is our ceili caller at the Féile Oslo and will teach a ceili crash-course for all those who want to join the ceili night but want to be prepared.