Return to London Town Festival Launch Concert

This evening is a celebration of the Irish traditional music, song and dance community in London today, featuring just some of its finest exponents.

It is also an opportunity for IMDL (Irish Music and Dance in London) to announce the main line up for the city’s 27th Annual Festival – ‘Return to London Town’, and to release the special Early Bird weekend tickets for the event.

This concert will feature:
Órlaith and Brogan McAuliffe with Peter McAlinden / John Bowe, Mick O’Connor and Tad Sargent / The Camden Set Dancers / The Trad Gathering / Jackie Quirke and singers

Return to London Town Festival will take place from Friday 24th – Monday 27th October 2025 in The Crown Hotel, Cricklewood and other local venues. Special Festival room rates will also be announced on this evening.

More details about IMDL’s year round events are available at: irishmusicinlondon.org and the Festival website is: returntolondontown.org

Órlaith and Brogan McAuliffe’s parents hail from Killarney, Co. Kerry, they were raised in a musical household in London. Both were taught the tin whistle at home, by their mother, Fidelma. At the age of nine, Órlaith took up the flute and at the age of ten Brogan took up the concertina under the tutelage of Maureen Linane. Órlaith and Brogan grew up attending numerous instrumental workshops at festivals, classes with Joe Searson, Maureen and Sinéad Linane. They were also surrounded by thriving Traditional Irish Music sessions in London.

Órlaith’s major influences on the flute include Olivia McTernan, Michael McGoldrick, Louise Mulcahy, Kevin Crawford, Peter Horan, Tom Doorley, Conal O’Grada, Aoife Granville, Paul McGlinchey and Matt Molloy. Órlaith has been an avid composer since the age of twelve, many of her tunes feature on her band CrossHarbour’s eponymous debut album (2014). She was awarded TG4’s Gradam Ceoil Ceoltoir Ógna Bliana for 2016 and has over twenty gold medals from the All Ireland Fleadh Cheoils under her belt.

Brogan’s main influences on the concertina include Micheál Ó Raghallaigh, Edel Fox, Timmy Collins and Kate McNamara. She holds 4 All-Ireland titles. Brogan has performed as a band member with ‘The London Lasses for over 10 years, recording two albums ‘The One I Loved the Best’ (2015) and ‘LL25’ (2022). Brogan has played at world class venues including the Royal Albert Hall, the Barbican Centre and Trafalgar Square.

Órlaith was a member of the All Ireland Award winning junior Auld Triangle Céilí Band; both she and Brogan currently play regularly with London’s popular Parish Céilí Band and have toured with Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann. They also both performed with the National Folk Orchestra of Ireland, debuting Michael Rooney’s ‘Macalla 1916’. Both sisters are prominent musicians on the London session scene.

Peter McAlinden was born in London in 1960 to parents who hailed from County Cork and County Down. Encouraged by a neighbour Kathleen Murray, a native of County Sligo and an avid enthusiast of Irish music, Peter gradually developed a love for traditional Irish music, savouring the magnificent recordings of the great musicians of that era, such as Séamus Tansey, Seán McGuire, Joe Burke, Matt Molloy and Finbarr Dwyer, while on the London scene in the 1970s meeting many inspirational musicians such as Bobby Casey, Tommy McCarthy, Raymond Roland and Jimmy Power. One of the most highly sought after piano accompanists on the London traditional Irish music scene and also a great flute player, Peter has always had a great passion for the humble whistle, in 1979 winning the senior competition in the All Ireland fleadh in Buncrana. Following his retirement from school teaching in 2012 he has been able to be a part of the traditional music scene in London, while becoming involved also in the teaching of music. In 2010 his whistle solo album ‘Happy to meet, sorry to part’, a dedication to the memory of his parents Jim and Kitty McAlinden and his mentor Kathleen Murray, received much positive critical acclaim. He was a member of the popular Saint Colmcille’s Ceili Band which won the senior All Ireland title in 1988 and 1991.

Mick O’ ConnorLondon’s own Mick O’Connor, who plays Tenor Banjo, Mandolin, inherited a love of Irish music from his parents who came from County Kerry and Roscommon in Ireland. ‘The Dubliners’ banjo player, Barry McKenna, inspired Mick to learn the Banjo in 1967. He learned tunes from the great London Irish musicians, including John Bowe, Bobby Casey, Tommy McCarthy, and Roger Sherlock, and is particularly influenced by Clare, Galway and Kerry styles of playing.

All Ireland winner on the tenor banjo in 1971, Mick has been playing since 1967 and is a veteran of the great days of the London Irish music scene of the 1960s, 70s and 80s. In 2013, he was honoured by Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, which bestowed its Bardic Award on him for his ‘exceptional contribution to the promotion of Ireland’s cultural traditions’. Mick can be heard playing banjo on East Galway flute player, Paddy Carty’s solo album for Shanachie Records in the 1970s and his duet album with Cavan fiddler, Anton MacGabhann ‘Doorways and Windowsills’. John Bowe

Accordion maestro John Bowe was born in Birr, Co Offaly. Greatly influenced by the legendary Paddy O’Brien, from neighbouring Tipperary, John was one of the founding members, band leader and accordionist in North London’s great Thatch Céilí Band, playing alongside musical colleagues, Mick O’Connor (banjo), Roger Sherlock and Paul Gallagher (flutes), Bobby Casey, Brendan Mulkere and Adrian Bourke (fiddles), Tommy Keane (uilleann pipes), Kevin Taylor (piano) and Mick Whelan (drums). The band used to play regularly on Sundays at The Thatch venue, on Highbury Corner and went on to win the All Ireland in 1986 and 1987. John recorded his first solo album, Ceoil Álainn, in 1977, with Mary Conroy on guitar. His second album, The Contradiction, with Kevin Taylor on piano, was released in 2004. John received the Bardic Lifetime Achievement Award from Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann in 2016.

The Trad Gathering
IMDL’s London-wide youth project The Trad Gathering features 30 young traditional Irish musicians led by Karen Ryan and Pete Quinn. This evening, members of the group will play their debut performance of tunes from the repertoire of the legendary North Leitrim musician and teacher, Tommy Maguire.

The Trad Gathering was jointly commissioned in 2008 by the BBC Proms and Return to Camden Town Festival. In recent years, the group have been celebrating music from the repertoires of prominent members of the London Irish music scene, including: Bryan Rooney, The McCarthy Family, Roger Sherlock, Lucy Farr, Danny Meehan, John Bowe, Julia Clifford and Mick O’Connor. The Trad Gathering have performed at the Royal Albert Hall, Cadogan Hall, Kings Place, Royal Festival Hall, Mayor of London’s St Patrick’s Day Festival at Trafalgar Square and more.

Camden Set Dancers
Cork’s Tom Kelleher teaches weekly set dancing classes for all levels at the London Irish Centre, Camden on Thursday evenings. Anne Drury teaches weekly set dancing classes for beginners at Brendan the Navigator, Highgate Hill on Monday evenings. Camden Set Dancers have been hosting their monthly Sunday ceili for over 40 years now – we are delighted to welcome a representation of London’s great set dancing community to perform for us this evening. For more information about classes, see ‘Tom’s Irish Set Dancing London’ on Facebook or contact: [email protected]

Jackie Quirke
Waterford’s Jackie Quirke honed much of her Connacht Irish and Sean Nós singing in Mayo’s Gaeltacht region, around Tourmakeady. She was one of the key membersof the cast of John B Keane’s play ‘The Bodhrán Makers’ which ran at the Galtymore in the 1990s. She is also a member of ‘In Good Company’ (formerly ‘Fair Plé Ladies of London’) who have performed at Cadogan Hall, Irish Cultural Centre and at Return to London Town Festival. Jackie is the regular ‘Bean a Tí’ at her newly founded weekly ‘Learn Irish through Singing’ sessions on Wednesdays during term time, from 7pm, upstairs in the Sir Colin Campbell, Kilburn. Everyone is welcome to learn from 7pm and simply to sing/ listen from 8pm.