Derek Hickey hails from Adare, Co. Limerick. Both his grandfathers played fiddle and his own musical career began at ten years of age when his uncle left an accordion in the family home.  Derek’s professional career began ath the age of 15 when he joined the Shannonside Céilí Band, touring extensively in England and made regular trips throughout Europe.

In 1992, at just eighteen years of age, Derek joined Arcady and in 1995 joined the legendary De Dannan.  Derek released his debut solo CD in 2022.  Derek is a button accordion tutor on the BA Irish Music and Dance and the MA Irish traditional Music Performance at the Irish World Academy.

Tommy Fitzharris, a Stradbally native, comes from a traditional Irish music family and has many All-Ireland titles on concertina and flute to his name.   Fitzharris’ musical influences stemmed predominantly from his father Tom who played fiddle.  He also gained a wealth of traditional music insight and inspiration from fellow Stradbally native, the late fiddle player and founding member of the legendary Bridge Ceili Band, Tom Ahearne. Much of Fitzharris’ influence consisted of the vibrant records of the wonderful supergroup ‘DeDannan’ of the 1970s and 1980s.  In his early twenties Tommy toured the world with the band Ciorras who were formed by bouzouki maestro and producer Donal Lunny as part of the series for TG4 Lorg Lunny.  In high demand as performer and teacher , Tommy is a regular on the traditional Irish music festival circuit in Ireland and internationally. Of late , he has performed with some of the giants of Irish music including Frankie Gavin (fiddle) and Dermot Byrne (button accordion). He recently released the critically acclaimed flute and fiddle album ‘The Bank of Turf’ with Monaghan fiddle maestro Dónal McCague in 2018.

Tommy is currently a music teacher at the University of Limerick’s Irish World Academy and also works with Music Generation Laois as a musician educator. He holds an MA in Irish Traditional Music Performance and a Graduate Diploma in Music Education from the University of Limerick.

Jim hails from Renmore in Galway. Born into a musical family, he went on to study music in University College Cork under Micheal O Suilleabhain amongst others. While in Cork, Jim caught ‘the bodhran bug’, playing alongside players such as Mel Mercier, Colm Murphy and Frank Torpey. During this period Jim was an active member of ‘The Stunning’ rock band playing trumpet and keyboards as well as percussion. He went on to play drums with fellow Galwegians ‘The Sawdoctors’ following a four year stint with ‘The Riverdance Show’ which took him around the world.

He is an honorary member of the Donegal based traditional group ‘Altan’ having recorded and toured extensively with them for the last fifteen years from the Hollywood Bowl to the Sydney Opera House. He has recorded and performed with such luminaries as Paul Brady, Christy Moore, Liam O’Flynn, Donal Lunny, Bill Whelan, Martin O’Connor and Lunasa. Jim also specializes in ethnic percussion encompassing the djembe, the darabukkas, the dumbeq and the mbira.  Jim teaches bodhran, drums and percussion on the BA Irish Music and MA Irish Traditional Music Performance here at the Academy.

Niall Keegan was born in the south east of England and began playing flute at an early age amongst the community of first and second generation Irish traditional musicians.

Niall is the founding course director of the BA Irish Music and the MA in Traditional Irish Music Performance at the University of Limerick and teaches on the MA Ethnomusicology and other programs there. He has taught at most Irish Universities as well as the Sibelius Academy, Helsinki; Newcastle University; Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Glasgow; Birzeit University, Palestine; and Addis Ababa University, among others.

Niall has performed extensively across the globe in a variety of contexts.  His research is primarily concerned with cognitive structures used by traditional musicians to organise their oral music in a literate world, as well as other issues that engage traditional and popular music in the contemporary scene.

Eileen is the bearer of a musical dynasty which can be traced back through generations on both sides of her family, the legendary, O’Brien family from Newtown, Nenagh and her mother’s family, the Seerys from Dublin who were founder members of C.C.E. Eileen’s father, Paddy O’Brien established the B/C accordion-playing style in the 1950’s. His innovative style both as a musician and a prolific composer continues to have a profound influence on Irish traditional music. Eileen carries this musical tradition forward through performance, teaching and composition. Eileen is  a graduate of  the Irish World Academy having achieved first class honours in the postgraduate programme MA Irish Traditional Music Performance in 2006.

Rebecca McCarthy Kent is a multi instrumentalist, equally accomplished in both classical and traditional music. She has won multiple Fleadh Ceoil All-Ireland titles in both fiddle and piano and is the current Bonn Óir Seán Ó Riada champion for 2019. Rebecca has toured nationally and internationally with different musical groups in Germany, Canada, USA, Dubai, Romania, China and many more. Rebecca is a qualified primary school teacher and has achieved first place in the TTCT teaching diploma in Irish music. Rebecca is also a member of the National Folk Orchestra of Ireland.

Conal O’Kane is from Philadelphia and is a graduate of the University of Limerick’s BA in Irish Music and Dance and MA in Irish Music Performance programs. A multi-instrumentalist, he originally played fiddle and banjo before focusing on guitar, which gives him an unusual insight into both the melodic and harmonic structures of a large repertoire of tunes. He studied music theory with Roberto Pace at the Settlement Music School, which gives him a broad spectrum of accompaniment techniques from a wide range of musical genres.In addition to his busy touring schedule, he is also a guitar teacher on both the undergraduate and postgraduate programs in Irish music at the Irish World Academy in UL, and a regular tutor at the Blas International Summer School of Irish Music and Dance.

Alan Colfer is a professional musician and guitar teacher from Waterford. He has played extensively throughout Ireland and Europe and has taught at the Irish World Academy since 2006.

All Ireland Champion Flute Player, Majella Bartley, hails from Corcaghan in Co. Monaghan. She is a respected flute and fiddle teacher, tutoring at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance as well as at national and international summer schools and workshops such as Scoil Eigse, Fiddle Festival of Wales, Kilkenny Celtic Festival and the British and North American Convention of Comhaltas. She holds the TTCT (Teastas i dTeagasc Ceolta Tíre) traditional music teaching diploma awarded by Comhaltas and is now a tutor and lecturer on this course. She is also a qualified adjudicator and has adjudicated many competitions including the all-Ireland Fleadh. She has toured with Comhaltas in Britain and Ireland in 1995 and 1997 respectively and has traveled America, Germany, France, Cyprus, Finland and Belgium playing and teaching at various festivals and events. Majella is the musical director and founder of the Munster based youth group Ceoltoiri na Sionainne and is currently the National Registrar for Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann. Majella holds a Masters in Irish Traditional Music Performance from the University of Limerick.

Siobhan’s musical history is a combination of Co. Donegal, through her father, Tommy, and Co. Clare, through her grandmother, Kitty Linnane, who was the pianist with the original Kilfenora Ceili Band. Raised in Clare, she has been involved in the musical community from the age of 11. Discovering the expansive fiddle music of Donegal in her mid teens led her to take a different approach to the fiddle and become immersed in the vastly different style and repertoire of that county. She has been teaching for the past 30 years all over Ireland and abroad but has a special place in her heart for her work in UL.

Michael is one of the most exciting uilleann pipers in Traditional Music. He was taught the uilleann pipes by the great Limerick piper Mickey Dunne. His influences are the playing of Paddy Keenan, who is a regular visitor to his home in Clare, Finbar Furey and the great Johnny Doran. He has been playing the pipes from a young age and is currently living, and playing, at the heart of Irish music in County Clare. He regularly tours Europe, the USA and the Far East but is also very much at home at his local bars in Ennis or Doolin. At concerts and sessions Michael O’Connell performs with gusto, and audiences are swept away by his exuberant and fast flowing piping style. A regular guest of Na Píobairí Uilleann (uilleann pipes association), and the William Kennedy Piping Festival. He teaches and performs at the annual Catskills Irish Arts Week in New York, and the Doran Tionol, as well as being a full time tutor at the Irish World Academy of Music, University of Limerick. He has also has toured extensively with various dance troupes in the USA, China, Taiwan and Dubai, including on Broadway and in Carnegie Hall. He has performed with Paddy Keenan, Finbar Furey and the Chieftains. He is an ambassador for Irish tourism as part of the current worldwide internet and TV campaign by Tourism Ireland. In 2010 he released the album; “We were drinking and kissing the ladies”, in collaboration with the renowned concertina player Hugh Healy to great critical acclaim. He followed this with the 2014 release of ‘Friars Green’ a duet album with Irish Music stalwart Cyril O’Donoghue. Blackie has influenced many of today’s up and coming uilleann pipers and continues to collaborate with top perfromers nationally including Siobhan Peoples, Eoghan Neff, Anxo Lorenzo and Davy Spillane.

Fiana hails from Castleconnell, Co Limerick. She began learning harp under the tuition of Dr. Janet Harbison. She completed her BA in Irish Music and Dance in 2012 with a First Class Honours degree from the University of Limerick and went on to graduate from Newcastle University with an Mmus in Musicology. Her achievements include numerous All-Ireland titles as well as prizes at local harp festivals. Fiana is completing her PhD in music and tourism at the University of Limerick and while doing so, she is very much in demand as a teacher and performer both locally and abroad. For more info www.fianaharpmusic.com

John Carty is one of Ireland’s finest traditional musicians having been awarded the Irish Television station, TG4’s Traditional Musician of the Year in 2003.

He has released several solo albums on fiddle and banjo including I Will If I Can, Last Night’s Fun and At It Again. He has also recorded a number of duet albums including Pathway to the Well with flute-player Matt Molloy, At Complete Ease with fiddle-player Brian Rooney, and Settle Out of Court with his daughter, the singer and banjo player Maggie Carty. In autumn 2020 a new duet album with his son, James, The Wavy Bow Collection, was launched. This is an exciting collaboration which explores duet fiddle playing and other instrumental combinations including banjo, tenor guitar, mandolin and flute in an unique way. John’s most recent release I hi 2022 recording with Michael McGoldrick At Our Leisure.  John teaches the fiddle and banjo at the Irish World Academy, primarily on the BA Irish Music and the MA Irish Traditional Music Performance.

Issues addressed in this module will be taken from current research engagements with the native Irish music and dance traditions. These will critically engage historical narratives, conceptual structuring and evolving identities of the traditions in question. Students will be introduced to concepts of research as a creative, scholarly practice.

In this class students are introduced to diverse music traditions from around the world, including, popular musics of West Africa, the court music of Indonesia, classical musics of India, folk and Celtic musics of Europe, classical music of the Arab Middle East, and traditional musics of Canada and America. Students deepen their knowledge of diverse repertoires and performance practices, develop their scholarly engagement with music and dance, gain a more global view of music and dance, and contextualise their own music and dance practices within the wider world of music and dance.

In addition to their core modules, each year students choose from a large number of elective modules in dance and music, and other subjects outside of the performing arts. These elective modules offer students the opportunity to enhance their educational experience, and broaden their artistic and academic horizons. Elective options vary from year to year but typically students can choose from  range of vocal and instrumental ensembles (from Academy choir to Irish traditional music ensemble), songwriting classes, lectures in country music, courses in choreography, North American percussive dance, Irish folklore and history, and various languages, including Irish.

Here students will develop core skills with one-on-one instrumental classes, classes with visiting performers, theory and keyboard classes.

This module explores Western Art music and dance practices in an academic and performative context, providing them with an insight into some of the diversity of music and dance practices within these traditions.

In this class students study various genres of popular music and dance. Students deepen their knowledge of diverse popular repertoires and performance practices, and deepen their knowledge of the role of popular culture in social, political, economic, cultural and artistic life. Students develop a critical view of popular music and dance, and contextualize their own music and dance practices within the wider, commercially mediated world of music and dance.

In addition to their core modules, each year students choose from a large number of elective modules in dance and music, and other subjects outside of the performing arts. These elective modules offer students the opportunity to enhance their educational experience, and broaden their artistic and academic horizons. Elective options vary from year to year but typically students can choose from  range of vocal and instrumental ensembles (from Academy choir to Irish traditional music ensemble), songwriting classes, lectures in country music, courses in choreography, North American percussive dance, Irish folklore and history, and various languages, including Irish.

Here students will develop core skills with one-on-one instrumental classes, classes with visiting performers, theory and keyboard classes.

 This module will more deeply engage issues in Irish traditional music and dance studies and, in this context, to apply cultural theory to Irish music and dance Studies in a deeper and more creative way.  Themes of difference and identity as relevant to traditional musicians in the past and present will be interrogated.  Issues will be focused on in the areas of Irish and English Language Song; the multitude of Irish dance styles as well as instrumental practice. These are to be addressed using a thematic approach which will engage theoretical areas such as identity, ethnicity,globalisation and the meaning of tradition. As such this is a research led module.

This module will introduce students to professional audio and visual technologies relevant to performers in their field. The professional world around performance practice, performance education, media and other career paths open to students on this programme will be explored. Students will use such technologies in professional contexts generating project work out of the day-to-day life of the Academy, recording concerts, providing technical support to a wide range of performances and generating media appropriate to the world of performing arts.  Students in this module will learn practical technological applications relevant to their performance practice. Students will learn to use and manipulate PAs and lighting rigs, led by professionals in the field and applied in real-world situations. Students will also be introduced to media generating software such as Final-Cut Pro and Logic to produce high level audio and video outputs.

In addition to their core modules, each year students choose from a large number of elective modules in dance and music, and other subjects outside of the performing arts. These elective modules offer students the opportunity to enhance their educational experience, and broaden their artistic and academic horizons. Elective options vary from year to year but typically students can choose from  range of vocal and instrumental ensembles (from Academy choir to Irish traditional music ensemble), songwriting classes, lectures in country music, courses in choreography, North American percussive dance, Irish folklore and history, and various languages, including Irish.

Here students will develop core skills with one-on-one instrumental classes, classes with visiting performers, theory and keyboard classes.

 The module content focuses on understanding the volatile dynamics of this field of cultural production through the study of particular examples of pop music throughout the globe. Some of the most important, and well documented, in this regard have been musics from Black America, South America, the Caribbean, North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa, Southeast Asia, Native North America, and the Northern Circumpolar regions. Particular issues and concepts key for an understanding of this phenomenon will be addressed in the context of these examples. 

This module is designed to help competent musicians and dancers to come to an understanding of what it means to be involved in music and dance education contexts. There are three main components to this module :Music and Dance Curriculum studies, Professional Studies and School Based Work. The first priority is to help the development of expertise in a variety of educative situations. These range from classroom activities for various age groups and abilities to instrumental teaching, classroom teaching, ensemble, choral, band and orchestral rehearsals, and the passing on of music and dance. There is also an introduction to Community Music and Dance which involves the development of acquired skills in a community music and dance context and as community musicians and dancers

In addition to their core modules, each year students choose from a large number of elective modules in dance and music, and other subjects outside of the performing arts. These elective modules offer students the opportunity to enhance their educational experience, and broaden their artistic and academic horizons. Elective options vary from year to year but typically students can choose from  range of vocal and instrumental ensembles (from Academy choir to Irish traditional music ensemble), songwriting classes, lectures in country music, courses in choreography, North American percussive dance, Irish folklore and history, and various languages, including Irish.

In their 3rd year, Irish World Academy performing arts students go on ‘co-op’, a university-wide module specifically designed for undergraduates to engage in real-world, professional environments. The Cooperative Education division, in consultation with the Academy, helps students to identify working opportunities in a variety of contexts, including arts management, education, performance, media and related fields. Students are encouraged to set up their own six-month placements or to engage in split placements (ideally no more than two placements) in order to explore if their expectations for future careers match the experiences they have during the co-op period. Faculty visits, pre- and post- co-op assessment skills, and final report help students to reflect upon the process, enabling them to critically evaluate their time off campus.

Here students will develop core skills with one-on-one instrumental classes, classes with visiting performers, theory and keyboard classes.

Here students will engage in ensemble work with in-house and visiting tutors well  as have the opportunity to select other collaborative performance practices in other folk, world and popular music and dance traditions.

This module is designed to enable music and dance students to develop awareness and understanding of the impact of the arts on health and well-being. The module aims to develop well-rounded music and dance graduates who are aware of the role of the arts in various contexts (such as hospital, community healthcare and mental health) and the impact of their own health and well-being on their own arts performance. The role of arts in society will be examined as well as the wide variety of approaches to creative engagement and the value of art.

This module will introduce students to the important contextualising disciplines of ethnomusicology and ethnochoreology and their main principles and orientations as well as the practical application of fieldwork and the production of ethnographic representations.

In addition to their core modules, each year students choose from a large number of elective modules in dance and music, and other subjects outside of the performing arts. These elective modules offer students the opportunity to enhance their educational experience, and broaden their artistic and academic horizons. Elective options vary from year to year but typically students can choose from  range of vocal and instrumental ensembles (from Academy choir to Irish traditional music ensemble), songwriting classes, lectures in country music, courses in choreography, North American percussive dance, Irish folklore and history, and various languages, including Irish.

Here students will develop core skills with one-on-one instrumental classes, classes with visiting performers, theory and keyboard classes.  Students will also begin to develop their 45 minute final performance.

Here students will engage in ensemble work with in-house and visiting tutors well  as have the opportunity to select other collaborative performance practices in other folk, world and popular music and dance traditions.

This module is intended students in the first semester of their fourth year, preparing to embark on an extended research project which will be presented in a 10,000 word thesis or equivalent. The student will agree on the subject of the project with the course director and will be introduced to a number of sample research projects and methodologies.

This module will examine issues pertinent to the lives of professional musicians and dancers. Issues such as promotion, effective communication, industry structures, touring, dealing with statutory arts bodies and funding structures will be practically engaged. Classes may feature professionals working in these fields and regularly faculty with relevant experience. This aspect of the module is supported by a lecture series and assessed through attendance and written assignments in the form of professional portfolios and resources.

In addition to their core modules, each year students choose from a large number of elective modules in dance and music, and other subjects outside of the performing arts. These elective modules offer students the opportunity to enhance their educational experience, and broaden their artistic and academic horizons. Elective options vary from year to year but typically students can choose from range of vocal and instrumental ensembles (from Academy choir to Irish traditional music ensemble), songwriting classes, lectures in country music, courses in choreography, North American percussive dance, Irish folklore and history, and various languages, including Irish.

Here students will develop core skills with one-on-one instrumental classes, classes with visiting performers, theory and keyboard classes.  Students will also begin to develop their 45 minute final performance.

Here students will engage in ensemble work with in-house and visiting tutors well  as have the opportunity to select other collaborative performance practices in other folk, world and popular music and dance traditions.

This is the second of the two Irish World Academy modules for the FYP. The student works in a one on one context with supervisor in this module while receiving certain skills training to enable them to fill out the structure of the FYP started in the previous semester. Students will produce their own unique piece of research in an genre and disciplinary approach to the performing arts of their own choosing.

This module is designed to give advanced undergraduate students the opportunity to explore a particular topic in an in-depth way not possible in introductory or survey modules. Specific topics will be chosen by the faculty member coordinating the module and will generally be research based. It is intended to serve as a recruitment stepping stone taking 4th year undergraduates into considering post-graduate studies in the international field of ethnomusicology.

In addition to their core modules, each year students choose from a large number of elective modules in dance and music, and other subjects outside of the performing arts. These elective modules offer students the opportunity to enhance their educational experience, and broaden their artistic and academic horizons. Elective options vary from year to year but typically students can choose from  range of vocal and instrumental ensembles (from Academy choir to Irish traditional music ensemble), songwriting classes, lectures in country music, courses in choreography, North American percussive dance, Irish folklore and history, and various languages, including Irish.