Page 28 - The 15th Percy French Festival: French Awakenings

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Donogh was born in Dublin. He started play- Roscommon born Cathy has been a pro fes -
ing guitar at about the age of %). When he sional singer with traditional group Dervish
moved to Dingle in west Kerry three years for nearly &' years. She is a self-taught guitar,
later he started to listen to traditional Irish bouzouki, bodhrán, and bones player. She
music. In no time he was hooked and playing has led Dervish as front woman through
sessions seven nights a week and spending thousands of concerts in hundreds of cities
his days learning and writing tunes on the tin- in nearly )' coun tries and has %+ albums
whistle. He moved to Galway seven years under her belt. Among the most notable
later where he befriended Sharon Shannon, perfor mances were The Great Wall of China
who asked him to join her band. Their bass and Rock in Rio, with over ",',''' people.
player was Trevor Hutchinson with whom As a song writer, she has written songs with
Donogh founded the group Lúnasa. He is interna tionally renowned Brendan Graham
perhaps best known for his recorded and live (best known for the lyrics of You Raise Me Up).
work with Lúnasa, Sharon Shannon, Lumiere, In "'%), she took up the role of presenter
Seamus Begley, and Pauline Scanlon. of Fleadh TV with TG). Cathy has been an
ambas sador for Irish culture and music for
over a quarter of a century, and has a deep
understand ing of traditional Irish songs and
singing and has collected hundreds of songs
which might otherwise have been forgot ten.
Over the years Cathy has received many
awards for her contribution to tradi tional Irish
music including: BBC Lifetime Achieve ment
Award ("'%(); Sligo Cultural Ambassador
("'%*); the Annie McNulty Award ("'%));
and The Freedom of The City of Sligo ("'%').

•!$• FRENCH AWAKENINGS • PERCY FRENCH FESTIVAL !"!#