Beoga

Beoga was formed in 2002 at the Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in County Kerry. Originally the group brought together musicians from Antrim and Derry in Northern Ireland, joined in 2005 by singer and fiddler Niamh Dunne from County Limerick. The band develops an approach to traditional Irish music that blends jigs, reels and airs with a meticulously crafted ensemble, powered by Damian McKee's accordion, Eamon Murray's bodhrán, Liam Bradley's piano and Seán Óg Graham's strings. From A Lovely Madness in 2004, then Mischief in 2007, The Incident in 2009 and How to Tune a Fish in 2011, Beoga asserts a precise acoustic sound, rhythmic and open to contemporary arrangements. The band’s trajectory later broadened toward more cross-cutting writing, visible on Before We Change Our Mind in 2016, Carousel in 2020 and the EP Breathe in 2021, where the folk thread dialogues more with pop. Beoga also worked with Ed Sheeran on Galway Girl and Nancy Mulligan in 2017, a collaboration that gave the quintet visibility beyond the traditional scene, without altering its grounding in Irish repertoire. In 2025 Beoga published Phases.