Biography
Among the most significant female singers in Irish musical history stands Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill. Her high-pitched voice and keyboard work formed a core part of Skara Brae, the Bothy Band, Touchstone, Nightnoise, and Relativity, while her solo effort Triona first appeared in Ireland during 1975 before reaching the United States nine years later.
She grew up in a family steeped in traditional music; her aunt Neilli supplied nearly three hundred folk songs to Dublin University’s folklore archive. Early notice came when Ní Dhomhnaill joined her brother Mícháel Ó Domhnaill, younger sister Maighread, and multi-instrumentalist Daíthí Sproule in the Gaelic-focused folk ensemble Skara Brae.
After bouzouki player Donal Lunny departed Planxty in 1975 and started the Mulligan label, he assembled musicians to back accordionist Tony MacMahon for a series of Irish National Radio broadcasts. Ní Dhomhnaill and her brother joined uilleann-pipe player Paddy Keenan, flute-and-whistle player Matt Molloy, and fiddler Paddy Glackin in the lineup, first called Seachtar before MacMahon’s exit prompted the name change to the Bothy Band.
The group made its concert debut on 2 February 1975 at Trinity College in Dublin. Though active for only three years, the Bothy Band helped update Ireland’s musical heritage for modern listeners. Despite frequent lineup shifts, Ní Dhomhnaill and her brother remained through the final recording, the 1978 live set After Hours captured at the Palais des Art in Paris. Another concert document, Live in Concert—taped by the BBC at London’s Pares Theater in July 1976 and Kilburn National Theater in July 1978—surfaced in 1995.
By the time the Bothy Band dissolved in 1979, singer-songwriter Mike Cross had convinced Ní Dhomhnaill to relocate to Chapel Hill, North Carolina. There she gathered local players into Touchstone, whose initial rehearsals took place in Cross’s house. The band’s releases The New Land (1982) and Jealousy (1984) mixed Gaelic songs with original material and traditional pieces from the United States and Nova Scotia.
In the mid-1980s Ní Dhomhnaill moved to Portland, Oregon, where her brother had already settled after leaving Ireland. Alongside former Silly Wizard members Johnny and Phil Cunningham they performed and issued two albums under the name Relativity. She also worked with Phil Cunningham and Brian Dunning—later succeeded by Billy Oskay—in the Celtic-inflected new-age ensemble Nightnoise.
She grew up in a family steeped in traditional music; her aunt Neilli supplied nearly three hundred folk songs to Dublin University’s folklore archive. Early notice came when Ní Dhomhnaill joined her brother Mícháel Ó Domhnaill, younger sister Maighread, and multi-instrumentalist Daíthí Sproule in the Gaelic-focused folk ensemble Skara Brae.
After bouzouki player Donal Lunny departed Planxty in 1975 and started the Mulligan label, he assembled musicians to back accordionist Tony MacMahon for a series of Irish National Radio broadcasts. Ní Dhomhnaill and her brother joined uilleann-pipe player Paddy Keenan, flute-and-whistle player Matt Molloy, and fiddler Paddy Glackin in the lineup, first called Seachtar before MacMahon’s exit prompted the name change to the Bothy Band.
The group made its concert debut on 2 February 1975 at Trinity College in Dublin. Though active for only three years, the Bothy Band helped update Ireland’s musical heritage for modern listeners. Despite frequent lineup shifts, Ní Dhomhnaill and her brother remained through the final recording, the 1978 live set After Hours captured at the Palais des Art in Paris. Another concert document, Live in Concert—taped by the BBC at London’s Pares Theater in July 1976 and Kilburn National Theater in July 1978—surfaced in 1995.
By the time the Bothy Band dissolved in 1979, singer-songwriter Mike Cross had convinced Ní Dhomhnaill to relocate to Chapel Hill, North Carolina. There she gathered local players into Touchstone, whose initial rehearsals took place in Cross’s house. The band’s releases The New Land (1982) and Jealousy (1984) mixed Gaelic songs with original material and traditional pieces from the United States and Nova Scotia.
In the mid-1980s Ní Dhomhnaill moved to Portland, Oregon, where her brother had already settled after leaving Ireland. Alongside former Silly Wizard members Johnny and Phil Cunningham they performed and issued two albums under the name Relativity. She also worked with Phil Cunningham and Brian Dunning—later succeeded by Billy Oskay—in the Celtic-inflected new-age ensemble Nightnoise.
Albums