Niall Finnegan
One of the number of singers that attend the monthly singing session in Whelan's, Niall is a great singer/songwriter who is local to the area. He runs a butcher shop in the nearby town of Gort, where Colie Moran also lives.
Niall's butcher shop is in the centre of Gort town, by the square. The song below, "The Chamber", is a current day tongue and cheek social comment about a recent addition to this square. (When you see this landmark on the DVD you will get an idea of what the experience must have been like watching it being built outside his meat shop!) The sound engineer for this project, Brendan Hearty, adds some tasteful backing to Niall's song on mandolin.
One of Niall's other songs also features on the album, which Mary Noonan sings "Milltown to Coruna". The inspiration for this came to him from a painting of the "San Esteban", a ship that sank off of the coast of Clare during the Spanish Armada in the 16th century. Milltown to Coruna won the best new ballad competition at the Clare Fleadh, 2012.