Musician behind FairPle movement to gig Upstairs at Dolans

RENOWNED and seasoned Irish traditional musician Karan Casey will perform at Dolan’s Upstairs alongside special guests next week.

Karan, who is studying for a PhD in performance practice at University of Limerick, will join other notable Irish trad artists, including Sean Og Graham, Niamh Dunne and Niall Vallely, on Wednesday, April 25 at 8pm.

“I am doing a new album, which is nearly mixed, and I will be playing a few songs from that and some older stuff that I have always been doing, a mixture of folk and trad,” she said. 

Karan is also founder of the FairPle initiative, which aims to promote gender equality in the Irish folk and trad scene in Ireland.

She said the idea for the project came after a music festival in Killarney had very few women programmed on the line-up. 

“I am very adamant that this is a conversation between men and women, to try and find a way to support women in music.”

On June 9, she will arrange FairPle Day, which she describes as a “day of action” at the Mansion House in Dublin. Karan is encouraging anyone and everyone to “put on a gig” on June 9.

“Be as creative as you like, and have a discussion about gender balance in traditional and folk music.”

Tickets, €15, for her show in Dolan’s Upstairs can be purchased online.