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Dermot McLaughlin is a fiddle player, promoter and producer. Both his parents were interested and active in music and culture: his father played harmonica, accordion, whistle and fiddle, his mother played piano. He played classical piano initially, taking part in the school orchestra and céilí band, and he and his brother Joe were taught fiddle by Tony Blace – once a member of David Curry’s band. Dermot began playing traditional music in the early 1970s, with maternal relations Denis Heaney and Paddy McMahon, Dolly McCafferty as influences, but his main inspiration has been the music of Donegal, particularly the fiddle playing of John Doherty. He has also studied the repertoire and style of such as Con Cassidy, James Byrne, Francie Dearg O’Beirne and Mickey Golly. He has recorded on Fiddlesticks, and on James Byrne’s solo album. From 1986 until 1998 he was traditional music officer, then music officer, with the Arts Council in Dublin, and was involved in the setting up of Cairdeas na bhFidiléirí and the ITMA. In 2003 he moved to promoting music with Temple Bar Cultural Trust. He has produced music for Claddagh, initiated the Temple Bar Trad Festival in Dublin, and scripted and presented The Raw Bar series for RTÉ 1 television. He is the chair of the Dublin International Dance Festival and of the ITMA.

Boyle, Finbar. (1951– ). Singer, commentator. From Dundalk, Co. Louth, as a teenager, hearing The Dubliners germinated his interest in traditional singing, and local sessions in Mark’s Bar gave him a contiguous, supportive resource and platform. He taught for four years following college at St Patrick’s, Drumcondra, then worked with Dublin City Libraries prior to joining the Department of Folklore in UCD where he spent ten years. He became involved with the Tradition Club at Slattery’s, Dublin, c.1971 performing there regularly himself, and was one of the organisers of the Dublin Folk Festival in the later ’70s. He wrote reviews, critiques and commentaries on traditional music for In Dublin magazine over several years and researched music for RTÉ’s Sunday Folk radio show. Highly regarded for his detailed familiarity with all traditional musics, he programmed the Temple Bar Trad Festival from 2006 to 2008.