Darren Kiely

Darren Kiely plays Telegraph Building, Belfast, on 13 October 2026. Raised in County Cork, he learned tin whistle and fiddle before picking up the guitar; that foundation shapes a live set where clear melodies, acoustic textures and a direct voice lead the way. Sitting between modern folk-pop and Irish tradition, his writing gravitates to family ties, departures and returns, and those small shifts that change a life. On stage, picked guitar lines can meet fiddle-led phrases, balancing the pulse of contemporary folk with a Celtic undertone.

Since 2019 he has stepped from the traditional circuit into his own material, later relocating to New York in 2022 to develop it on stages from the city to Nashville. Recent tracks such as How Could You Love Me, Ella, Time To Leave and Mom & Dad map out that path. In Belfast, these songs land with the same clarity as on record, with storytelling kept upfront and arrangements that stay close to the grain of the instruments.