Big night of folk music at Leitrim Listeners Club

There is a strong night of folk music in store at the Leitrim Listeners Folk Club this Saturday, September 5, when Aoife Duignan, Dots O’Connor, Mossie Martin and Michael McKenna take to the stage at The Leitrim Inn & Blueway Lodge at 9pm.

Roscommon singer Aoife Duignan, from the coal-mining village of Arigna, will be performing just one day after the release of her new single, The Winning Dream, on Friday, September 4.

The song has already attracted huge attention online, with performances reaching more than three million views across TikTok and Facebook. But the story behind the song goes back more than 30 years to an old radio recording made at Regan’s Bogside Inn.

While studying Traditional Irish Music in Drumshanbo, Aoife was given a CD by her tutor, Mossie Martin. It contained a 1993 recording of the Bogside Inn appearing on a Shannonside Radio programme with Vincent Pierce.

Among those featured was Kathleen Higgins, originally from Co. Offaly, singing a humorous song she called The Lottery Song, also known as The Winning Dream. Kathleen regularly sang in the Bogside alongside her husband John Higgins, who played the fiddle. Kathleen passed away in 2004 and John in 2010.

Aoife learned The Winning Dream directly from Kathleen’s singing on the CD and began performing it herself. She went on to perform the song at her sold-out concert in Keadue and during two sold-out nights at The Dock in Carrick-on-Shannon. The online response led to repeated requests for Aoife to record and release the song.

For the single artwork, Aoife returned to the former Bogside Inn with photographer David Knight, who was also on the 1993 recording playing guitar. They were welcomed into the pub by former proprietors John James and Carmel Regan, with the building having been closed since Covid.

Aoife also sang The Winning Dream inside the old pub, sitting where Kathleen Higgins used to sit. Reflecting on the experience of returning to the Bogside and the connection with Kathleen Higgins, Aoife said: “Walking into the Bogside was a magical moment. “You could feel the history in those four walls. I’d heard the stories about Kathleen sitting there and singing with this powerful voice that would carry around the pub, and then I was sitting where she used to sit, singing the song I’d learned from her voice.

“I never had the pleasure of knowing Kathleen or John personally, but I wanted this release to be a tribute to them and the musical legacy they left behind.

“The Bogside is also part of my own memories. I went there with my dad as a child to sing at sessions, so to come back all these years later with David, John James and Carmel, have the tea and the craic, and create the photos for this release was very special.

“That’s what I love about traditional music. Songs and stories are passed from person to person and from one generation to the next. Kathleen’s voice reached me through an old CD, and now millions of people have heard the song online.”

Also on the bill is Dots O’Connor, a contemporary and traditional Irish folk singer-songwriter and guitarist with Come On Live Long. O’Connor’s music draws on rural landscapes, heritage and human connection, combining original material with traditional influences. His new four-track EP, Jodie, centres on a single, middle-aged man navigating loneliness in rural isolation.

The Leitrim Listeners Folk Club performance gets underway at 9pm on Saturday, September 5, at The Leitrim Inn & Blueway Lodge.