Máire and Chris have had a very busy and interesting time since Máire was awarded TG4 Traditional Musician of the Year 2001 in Ireland (see below). Their 2003 schedule so far is here; later in the year they’ll tour in New Zealand for the sixth time. Of a Dublin performance in April, Irish Music Magazine said “It isn’t every day one gets to hear musicians whose singing and playing are so moving, so wonderfully executed with such technical brilliance and beauty, that they actually bring tears to one’s eyes; this extra- ordinary pair did to mine, and that evening will remain a lasting & unforgettable memory.”

Their playing features on Irish rock legend Rory Gallagher’s recently-released posthumous album Wheels within Wheels (BMG, 2003), launched at a star-studded party at the Irish Embassy in London in March. Máire is currently recording another solo CD—her first since the groundbreaking New Strung Harp in 1985—and is to be one of Lyric FM’s Artists of the Week this autumn. (Lyric FM is Ireland’s equivalent of BBC Radio 3.)

In 2002 they toured Germany, Switzerland, the USA, Holland & Ireland and played at Folk Festivals in New York, Dranouter, Warwick, Trowbridge, Wimborne, Broadstairs, Fylde & Otley; Arts Festivals in Galway & Kyoto (Japan); Irish Festivals in Boston, Dallas & Copenhagen; Celtic Festivals in Rising Sun, Indiana and Enschede, Leeuwarden & Tiel (Holland); and Harp Festivals in Termonfeckin & Keadue (Ireland). Chris has been Newcastle University Folk B. Mus course’s guitar tutor since its inception in 2001.

Their fifth duo album Dialogues:Agallaimh was released in 2001: