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  Brendan Markham The Enduring Journey of a Limerick Musician By Kieran Beville In Limerick, a city known for its musical grit and lyrical honesty, certain artists stand out not because they dominate headlines, but because they simply keep going. Among them is Brendan Markham, a musician whose story stretches from the rehearsal rooms of Rathkeale to the stages of Europe and back again, built not on showmanship but on endurance, craft and a deep-rooted sense of place. His career, spanning decades, offers a rare window into what it means to sustain a musical life long after the noise of youthful ambition fades. Markham’s path begins in the quiet streets of Rathkeale, where he first shaped his musical identity. Like many artists raised far from the major music capitals, he drew from what was around him: small venues, friends with guitars, the urgency of creating something new. The early band he fronted evolved into The Driven, the group that would come to define the first ma...
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The Story of Tuesday Blue - From Limerick to Montreux

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  From Limerick to Montreux The Story of Tuesday Blue By Kieran Beville From a poster given away with the  RTE Guide In the history of Irish rock music, the spotlight inevitably falls on the bands who achieved international fame. Yet the full story of Ireland’s music scene is also shaped by the groups who came close — bands who built strong reputations locally, attracted industry attention and, for a brief period, stood on the edge of something much larger. One such band was Tuesday Blue , a Limerick group whose career during the 1980s carried them from local rehearsal rooms to one of the most famous recording studios in Europe. Formed in Limerick in the early 1980s, Tuesday Blue progressed steadily through the Irish music circuit. Their rise saw them release records nationally, sign to a label founded by members of U2 , and eventually travel to Montreux in Switzerland to record their debut album at Mountain Studios , a recording facility owned by Queen and used by...
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David Attenborough - A Voice That Changed the Moral Imagination

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  David Attenborough A Voice That Changed the Moral Imagination By Kieran Beville  David Attenborough There are famous people, there are admired people and then there are the vanishingly rare figures who become woven into the emotional fabric of entire generations. Sir David Attenborough belongs to that last category. His hundredth birthday does not feel like the anniversary of a broadcaster or natural historian. It feels closer to a global moment of thanksgiving. For more than seventy years, Attenborough has occupied a singular place in public life. Politicians divide opinion. Celebrities fade. Cultural icons rise and collapse with fashion. Yet Attenborough endured, not because he chased relevance but because he dedicated his life to something permanently relevant: the living world itself. His achievement cannot be measured simply in programmes made, awards won or audiences reached, though the numbers are extraordinary. His true accomplishment lies elsewhere. He...
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Donovan - Mystic & Living Legend Comes to Limerick

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                                                                          Donovan Mystic & Living Legend Comes to Limerick By Kieran Beville Donovan When Donovan first appeared on the British music scene in the mid-1960s, he seemed to drift in from another age—barefoot, poetic, with quiet intensity. At a time when the cultural world was shifting under the weight of youth rebellion, political upheaval and artistic reinvention, Donovan offered something at once simpler and more profound: songs that felt like ancient folk tales whispered through a modern psychedelic lens. Now, decades later, the Scottish troubadour—born in Glasgow in 1946—remains an enduring presence in music history. With a career spanning more than sixty years, he has long outlived the era that first embraced him, yet his work ...
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Peter Donnelly - A Tribute

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  Peter Donnelly The Ongoing Creative Journey By Kieran Beville Across Ireland’s endlessly renewing music landscape, certain artists leave marks so deeply woven into the cultural fabric that their influence is felt long before their names are widely known. Peter Donnelly — guitarist, songwriter, vocalist, and self-taught visual artist — is one of those figures, hiding in plain sight. For decades he has been an essential part of Limerick’s creative bloodstream, most recognisably as a core member of The O’Malleys, a band whose history is equal parts folklore, grit, reinvention, and joyful absurdity. And speaking of absurdity – Peter Donnelly is renowned for his hilarious wit and repartee – one of the funniest and nicest guys you will ever meet. Donnelly is not the kind of musician who pursues the spotlight. Rather, he builds a world and invites people into it — a world shaped by music that resists categories and paintings that burn with emotional honesty. In both mediums, his...
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