Known as the “Jimi Hendrix of the Irish Pipes” Paddy Keenan was born in Trim, Co. Meath to a family steeped in traditional music. Once again the Festival is delighted to host Paddy with his long time collaborator Tríona Ní Domhnaill, a gifted natural musician with a deep empathy and an endless curiosity for new musical possibilities. Paddy and Tríona first worked together as essential members of the The Bothy Band, a group who forever changed the face of Irish traditional music. Merging a driving rhythm section with traditional Irish tunes in ways that had never been heard before the band had a reputation of fearsome live performance: one reviewer likened the experience to “being in a jet when it suddenly whipped into full throttle along the runway.”