Ramblings

Hello and Happy New Year,

Let’s hope 2015 offers up all that we could ever wish for and desire…it’s a long shot I know, so don’t stop buying lottery tickets. Thank you one and all for coming to our Celtic Christmas shows and to all of my solo performances during November and December and if you didn’t, just ignore the above sentence.  Maybe next time!

I had to cancel my November shows in the Shannon Pub in Buffalo due to the major snow storm that hit, hopefully I can schedule some time to get up there before the summer. Thanks for your understanding.

We have three Tours going to Ireland this summer. The first is in June and has been specially customized for the Friends of The Savannah Philharmonic. Conductor /Director Peter Shannon will accompany us on this trip and we’ll visit scenes of his childhood in Cork and places in Dublin where he studied music as a young man. This tour will of course have a full sightseeing itinerary as well as some musical surprises arranged by Peter. Four and five star hotels will serve to accommodate us and we’ll spend the last two nights in the famous Dromoland Castle Hotel. This tour itinerary and brochure can only be accessed with a password. Please contact me to obtain the password. June 17 – 25, 2015.

Our second Tour is with Fr. Liam and Mary Collins and will serve to celebrate Fr. Liam’s 70th birthday. He’s a Tipperary man and so we’ll visit that beautiful county, spending the first night in the Aherlow hotel, nestled in the beautiful Glen of Aherlow. Then we’ll travel to the counties of Cork and Kerry and finish off in County Limerick. As with all our tours we’ll travel at a leisurely pace and enjoy splendid scenery, historic visits, sing alongs and humour along the way. We have chosen finely appointed hotels to accommodate us. An added feature is that we will spend the Fourth of July in Dingle, County Kerry. This Tour begins and ends at Shannon airport. June 30 –July 7, 2015.

Our own O’Donoghue annual Tour begins and ends at Dublin Airport.  We’ll spend some time in and around Dublin city before heading west to Galway where we’ll stay for two nights during the Galway Arts Festival. This is a vibrant city and even more so during the Arts Festival. We’ll enjoy the famous Trad on the Prom show on our second evening and then it’s off up to Sligo to visit the Ceidi Fields, the most extensive Stone Age monument in the world. After two nights at the Sligo Radisson Blu Hotel we’ll turn east and spend our last evening at Trim Castle Hotel, not far from the airport. Trim Castle is the largest Anglo –Norman castle in Ireland and was used during the making of the epic movie Braveheart.  All in all it promises to be a lovely time, four star accommodations, good companionship, beautiful scenery and a leisurely paced tour. July 9 -16, 2015

Please visit our Tour Page here on the website for more extensive information and please don’t hesitate to get in touch with any concerns. We do our very best to accommodate special requests. Our coach driver/guide on all three tours will be Owen Mohan. We’ve been working with Owen since 2001 and it’s always been, and continues to be, a pleasure.

I’m scheduled to perform on the Norwegian Dawn again this year. I will be part of the repositioning cruise sailing from New Orleans to Boston on April 19.

I’ll also be on the New England/Canada sailings. Four seven day cruises in all.
Boston – Quebec – September 11. Quebec – Boston – September 19.
Boston – Quebec – September 25. Quebec – Boston – October 2.

And lastly I will be on the Dawn repositioning cruise leaving Boston for New Orleans on October 30, 2015. I’m scheduled to perform on part of this cruise and may join the ship mid-cruise.

On May 16, 2015, I will join Joanie Madden on her fourth Folk ‘n Irish Cruise, sailing from New York City on board the Norwegian Gem. Joanie’s cruises are always a blast and there will be over 50 Irish musicians and dancers on board. Cherish The Ladies, Cathie Ryan, Tommy Sands, Gabriel Donohue, Dermot Hegarty, Guaranteed Irish, Ennis and loads more. For more information or to sign on please contact Kevin Donovan at 1-855-747-7427 or email him at kevin.donovan@wmph.com. The official website is www.joaniemaddencruise.com.

For my full itinerary please go to our Calendar page here on the website or check out my Facebook pages: Harry O’Donoghue and Harry O’Donoghue Music.

I’ve begun two new recording projects in Philadelphia with producer Gabriel Donohue. The first is a concept project that looks at loves journey through music and should be released in April. The second project is a full CD and will be released in the fall. It’s a pleasure working with Gabriel again, his talent is seemingly endless.

As ever, thank you for your support and I hope to see you out there.