Date

01 Mar 2023
Expired!

Time

9:00 pm - 11:00 pm

Conor O’Sullivan & Andy Dunne

Born Andrew Dunlea on August 26th 1968, the youngest of 13 siblings, with a rare condition known as Prune Belly Syndrome. At age 7, very much inspired by his older brother Patsy, he discovered that music and guitar, in particular could make his thoughts and heart travel miles away from hospitals and all that came with them.Taking the name Andy Dunne while playing at a local club in Cork City, Ireland at age 15 meant that Andrew’s illness was no longer the big picture and Andy was free to roam the highways, mountains and streams of music. His life long love.His earliest performances were played to full houses, playing support to acts such as Big Country, Midge Ure, Guy Clark, Mary Black, Jimmy MacCarthy, The FleadhCowboys, Freddie White, Philip Donnelly and so on. This was the best “education” he could ever get. Andy was busy every week learning songs specifically to suit the next audience. This led to him having a very large choice of material. Gold for any cover artist.This exposure meant Andy was invited to join various Bands over the late 80’s and early 90’s. This included being lead singer and acoustic guitar player with Irish folk legend Davey Arthur from ’91 to ’93.After touring with Davey, Andy started to focus on the Irish Pub scene which was really taking off in Germany. He was asked to play at the opening of a friends new bar in Hamburg. So began a loveaffair with a country he still tours in concert today, both solo and as part of Irish Folk group Galleon.For a number of years he’s been holding a Monday night residency in one of Cork’s premier music venues, The Oliver Plunket and is in demand throughout Cork’s best live music venues. Conor O’Sullivan’s musical journey started as a teenager with an unlikely interest in the tenor banjo. Just 3 years later Conor was a regular performer in The Corner House, playing in weekly sessions and soaking up as much as possible. Soon after Conor started performing for a stint with the energetic Cork outfit North Cregg while resident banjo player was unavailable.After performing in the U.K., Germany, Belgium and the U.S. by age 21, Conor decided to focus more on acoustic guitar and gathered a wealth of knowledge regarding accompaniment in both traditional tunes and song. This broader interest in acoustic music eventually led to the formation of folk band “Deluce’s Patent”, a 4 piece ensemble featuring all stringed instruments and vocals. The group recorded one album with and performed in Scotland, Russia as well as at home in Ireland. In 2012 Deluce’s Patent were asked to headline the St. Patrick’s Day Festival in Moscow as guests of the Irish Embassy to cap off a 2 week long tour of the country. Over the course of two years they shared the stage with Dervish, Tom Baxter, KAN and Altan.In 2012 Conor went on to join Silta, a fusion band boasting members from Germany, Norway, Ireland and the U.S. The band recorded one E.P. and played material primarily from Scandinavia including traditional songs from Norway, Scotland.The next four years saw Conor back touring extensively throughout the U.S. and Canada as a guitarist with the hugely popular show Celtic Crossroads. Also at this time Conor was performing frequently throughout Russia with Fuinnimh. Entrusted by promoters to bring a small ever changing troupe of Irish musicians to Russia biannually, Conor created Fuinnimh as a name for the project. It ran for 5 years and helped bring Irish music to numerous cities and towns throughout the country.Later, Conor became involved in Cork City Councils “Lee Sessions” and “Pulses of Tradition” initiatives. More recently he has performed in Germany and the U.S. with multi-award winning songwriter Barry Tierney, as half of the folk duo Leif and with many other musicians locally in Cork. In 2015 Conor released a solo album of mostly original songs and has subsequently released another three solo albums all to great acclaim.