St. Patrick’s Festival
Teesside folk quartet The Wilsons perform alongside The McKeaney Sisters from Glen West, Co. Fermanagh.
Age Suitability: 16+
TICKETS €11
RUNNING TIME 2 hrs with 5 min turnaround between acts
ABOUT THE COMPANY
The Wilson Family is an English folk music group from Billingham, Teesside, North East England. They have been singing and performing acappella folk songs since 1974. Over those decades the group members have consisted of sister Pat and five brothers: Tom, Chris, Steve, Ken and Mike. The accepted benchmark for powerhouse unaccompanied singing, they were awarded the Gold Badge of the English Folk Dance & Song Society (EFDSS) in 2017, the highest honour the society can bestow. Following a highly acclaimed performance at The Royal Albert Hall BBC Proms, The Wilson Family collaborated with the world-renowned artiste Sting, providing the backing vocals on his album “The Last Ship”. To promote the release of the album and the subsequent Broadway stage play, the Brothers performed with Sting and his touring band in a series of sell-out shows at New York City’s prestigious Public Theatre.
In addition to performing as a group, The Wilson Family promote and encourage the development of folk song, by continuing to host one of the longest established uninterrupted weekly Folk Club gatherings in the UK “The Welly Folk Club”, and as Patrons of the highly regarded Durham Folk Festival (formerly Hartlepool Folk Festival). Spending time in the studio recently, recording songs new to their repertoire, the resultant new Wilson Family album “Sibling Revivalry” marks 50 years of singing together, and is already receiving critical acclaim. The present-day group are the original core members, Tom, Chris, Steve and youngest brother Mike.
The McKeaney Sisters – Anna McManus, Rosie Stewart, Peggy McGovern and Kathleen Meehan – are four songbirds from Lough Melvin’s shores. Their love for singing and traditional music was instilled from childhood by their father, Packie McKeaney in their home on a small farm in the townland of Glen West, near Cashel in County Fermanagh. Music and singing played a massive part in the quartets’ life from an early age. Their earliest performances were singing in their primary school. The joy of entertaining has been with the ladies ever since and they have all individually presented themselves onstage throughout the years. The sisters have been performing together as ‘The McKeaney Sisters’ since 2007. Their album, ‘From the Hearth of the Glen’ was recorded and released in 2016. They have performed at Fleadhs and Festivals throughout the land and further afield and have made several appearances on radio and television; the most recent being on TG4’s fantastic ‘Sli na mBeaglaoich.’
ABAIR is an international programme, exploring the Irish traditions of storytelling, song, and oral history, and tracing their connections around the world.
Curated by traditional singer Macdara Yeates, ABAIR 2026 brings together an international line-up of singers, musicians and storytellers from Ireland, New Zealand, the UK, Japan and the Chickasaw Nation. The programme examines the relationship between the sung and spoken word (the Irish word “abair” translates roughly as both “to say” and “to sing”), with a series of concerts across venues including the National Concert Hall, Smock Alley Theatre, The Button Factory, and the Peacock Theatre.
Now in its 8th year, ABAIR is St. Patrick’s Festival’s flagship traditional arts strand, supported by the Arts Council Traditional Arts Fund.
