Eilís Kennedy – Past Concerts

Éilís Kennedy is a fluent native Gaelic singer and speaker from West Kerry, whose beautiful voice has been onstage at the Kennedy Center (no relation) with another West Kerry singer in the renowned duo Lumiere, Pauline Scanlon. Éilís was raised in Baile an Mhuraigh in West Kerry by parents who passed on a lifelong and committed interest in the poetry and songs of that region. She has been fortunate to have had the opportunity to listen to many of the finest exponents of song in her locality.

Eilís recorded her first solo CD—entitled Time to Sail, in 2000, with guitarist William Coulter—gaining her widespread critical acclaim. This was followed by another solo collection, One Sweet Kiss. In early 2017, Eilís released her third solo recording, Westward, with her friend and Grammy award winning US guitarist William Coulter. Eilís's newest album, So Ends This Day, is a themed album of songs she has composed about lives involved in whaling, New Bedford whalers and their wives, including a song about the Fenian rescue in Fremantle by the whaleship Catalpa in 1876. The album received critical acclaim and was nominated for an RTE Folk Award. Eilís also received the 2021 ACLSR Award for Female Vocalist of the Year. The song Petticoat Whalers from the album is a runner up in the 2021 American Songwriter International Songwriting competition.

In 2020, she also released Gan Tionlacan, an album of unaccompanied Irish language songs learned in childhood.