Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin

Pádraigín is a native of one of the richest regions in cultural and musical heritage in Ireland  -  Oriel in southeast Ulster. Her home language was Gaelic. Traditional singer, composer, researcher, song writer, author and now a professional singer since 1999.

She has had a number of artistic residencies but has been Foras na Gaeilge Traditional Singer in Residence at Queen’s University since 2005, based in the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry where she performs, gives workshops and where her research continues on various aspects of the song tradition, and the recreation of the ancient tradition of sung poetry.

She has recorded nine albums of song, some which include her own original compositions, and is the author of A Hidden Ulster – people, songs and traditions of Oriel (Four Courts Press 2003),

Although widely known as a singer, she is a multifaceted traditional artist. Some of her compositions include settings to music of early Irish and bardic poems, and works by leading Irish contemporary poets such as Ciaran Carson, Seamus Heaney, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill and Biddy Jenkinson, some of which can be heard on the recordings An Dara Craiceann (CD, Gael Linn, 1995) and Áilleacht / Beauty (CD, Gael Linn, 2005) and Songs of the Scribe (2011).

She has made a major contribution to the song tradition in Ireland by her renewal of the southeast Ulster song tradition in her acclaimed publication A Hidden Ulster. Her varied work includes recordings of traditional song for children, A Stór is a Stóirín (CD, Gael Linn, 1994) and When I was Young (1997). A former broadcaster and newsreader, she has researched and presented radio programmes such as the earliest archival programme, ‘Reels of Memory’ (RTÉ, 1979-1981).

She is the recipient of numerous awards, including Gradam Shean-Nós Cois Life in 2003 for her contribution to the Irish song tradition, and was the first traditional artist to be awarded a Major Arts Award from the Northern Ireland Arts Council. 

Her renewal of aspects of the Gaelic Ulster song tradition continues - compiling a collection of songs from the Bréifne tradition, and with the recording of the full Oriel corpus of songs which she restored and published in A Hidden Ulster. She was awarded a doctorate in 2007.

Pádraigín has collaborated and recorded with many other musicians and producers including Garry Ó Briain, Steve Cooney, Máire Breatnach, Palle Mikkelborg, Helen Davies and currently with producer/engineer and multi-instrumentalist Dónal O’Connor.

She has studied chant, dhrupad and vocal work with Dr Ritwick Sanyal from Benares in India, with Silvia Nakkach in Auroville in India, and recently with Jill Purce of the Healing Voice in Glastonbury.

She continues with the learning process and the creative work is ongoing…