The winners of the eighth RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards were announced last night (Tuesday November 10th) at Vicar Street in Dublin, with Barry Kerr taking two awards. The ceremony was hosted by John Creedon and broadcast live on RTÉ Radio 1 and the RTÉ Listen app.
Kerr won Best Original Folk Track for ‘The Curlew’s Cry’ and Best Folk Singer. Joshua Burnside won Best Folk Album for It’s Not Going To Be Okay, and Rua Rí won Best Emerging Artist. You can see the full list of nominees here.
The winners:
- Best Original Folk Track: Barry Kerr – ‘The Curlew’s Cry’
- Best Traditional Folk Track: Macdara Yeates – ‘De May Bush’
- Best Folk Singer: Barry Kerr
- Best Folk Instrumentalist: Ultan O’Brien
- Best Folk Group: Beoga
- Best Folk Album: Joshua Burnside – It’s Not Going To Be Okay
- Best Emerging Artist: Rua Rí
- Lifetime Achievement: Tommy Sands
- Hall of Fame: Dolores Keane
I was one of the judges on the main prizes this year.
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Tommy Sands received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Bernadette Devlin McAliskey. The singer, songwriter and broadcaster first gained international acclaim with The Sands Family, and his song ‘There Were Roses’ is among the best known pieces of music to come out of Northern Ireland’s peace process. Previous honourees include Dónal Lunny, Mary Black, Christy Moore and Moya Brennan.
President Connolly formally inducted Dolores Keane, who died in March this year, into the Hall of Fame, celebrating her legacy with the Keane family.
Support for Palestine was a common theme throughout the night, with Beoga’s Eamonn Murray in the band’s acceptance speech highlighting Airbnb as a complicit company who should be the focus of an Irish boycott, with Ireland still being one of the biggest trading partners with Israel in Europe.
Live performances on the night came from Beoga, The Unthanks, Declan O’Rourke, Jillian O’Malley, Joshua Burnside, Hammy Hamilton & the Ora Quartet, Kris Drever with Noriana Kennedy, Nicola Joyce and Pauline Scanlon, and Edwina Guckian among others.
You can listen back on the RTÉ Listen app, and a television highlights programme airs on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player on Saturday November 14th.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. Niall is the chost of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and host of monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
