MARTIN & CHRISTINE DOWLING - Traditional Music Postcards from Belfast - Irish Traditional Music

Shining a spotlight on some local musical heroes as they perform in some of Belfast’s most iconic cultural locations, we get a glimpse into the musical wallpaper and the curious world of traditional music in this city, a place of smoky entries, dusky pubs and vibrant sessions.

Belfast TradFest presents Traditional Music Postcards from Belfast. Giving a gritty and colourful insight into the sometimes-hidden world of traditional music, in Ireland’s second city, we imbibe the spirit of Belfast's raw bar, with solo performances and duets from local musicians, as they describe their traditional music journey through locations, stories, music and song. In a city where the great poet Ciaran Carson once said, ‘The same tune should never be played the same way twice’, we feature Harry Bradley – Flute , Úna Monaghan - Harp, Francis McIlduff – Uilleann Pipes, Caoimhe Ní Chathail - Singing, Martin & Christine Dowling - Fiddle & Flute, Willie Hill – Fife & Drum, Conor Caldwell - Fiddle and Méabh Meir - Singing.

Martin and Christine Dowling, both originally from Chicago, have been playing music together since the early 1980s, and have lived in Belfast since 1994. Christine is a singer and flute player, whose first influences were Tara Diamond and P.J. Crotty at Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy in County Clare. Martin’s early fiddle playing was guided by the example of great Chicago players Johnny McGreevy and Liz Carroll. As a duet, Martin and Christine gravitated towards the musicians, past and present, around Martin’s mother’s home village of Gurteen, in South Sligo, where the flute and fiddle combination predominates. As the years passed, musical influences from north Leitrim, Fermanagh, and Donegal have mixed in to their style, and they have thrived in the vibrant scene in Belfast, home to a swarm of great fluterers, pipers, and fiddlers. Both are deeply involved in traditional music education, serving on the management committee and as instructors for BelfastTrad Traditional Music Society (www.belfasttrad.com), and Martin as a lecturer in Irish Traditional Music in Queen’s University of Belfast (2007-2015), and teacher at Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy (since 1998).