Ríoghnach Connolly wins RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Award

Ríoghnach Connolly of The Breath won Best Folk Singer at the seventh RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards, 2025, held in Dublin last night (Wednesday 26 February).

The RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards took place at a lively ceremony at Vicar Street in Dublin, hosted by John Creedon. Ríoghnach was not able to attend in person, as The Breath were playing in Sheffield, but the singer posted the following message in The Breath’s instagram account:

Go raibh maith agaibh to the RTÉ Folk Awards for this great honour, to John Spillane; Ta bród an domhain orm – it’s been the pride of my life to be your Banríon in Fíoruisce: The Legend of the Lough, and Go raibh maith agat to Uncle Déaglán for help with my Irish.

I wouldn’t have got where I am without: My Grandparents – Connollys and McNultys!
Siblings – The C unit: Lochlainn, Róise, Tíarnan, Cádhla, Ódhran, Fiadhnait & Eithniú Rua.

Real World, The Breath, Honeyfeet & Lí Ban
ARMAGH PIPERS CLUB – Thankyou so much to Brian & Eithne for everything you’ve done for Armagh.

This award is for my daughter Macha, the long suffering Welsh Adonis Ellis Davies. Dedicated to mo Dhadaí Tarlac, Na gaeilgeorí bríste – the broken irish speakers and the Children of the H – blocks.

There are such terrible things happening in the world at the moment, it’s a privilege to have my voice documented and I’ll never take it for granted.

Oiche Mhaith!
Free Palestine!

The other winners included:

Best Original Folk Track – Caoine by RÓIS
Best Traditional Folk Track – Welcome Home, Gráinne by Natalie Ní Chasaide & Iarfhlaith Ó Domhnaill
Best Folk Singer – Ríoghnach Connolly
Best Folk Instrumentalist – Alannah Thornburgh
Best Folk Group – Landless
Best Folk Album – Fíoruisce – The Legend of the Lough by John Spillane
Best Emerging Artist – RÓIS

Róise Rua was inducted into the RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards Hall of Fame and Dónal Lunny was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Listen back to the ceremony on the RTÉ Player. TV Highlights on RTÉ One, Saturday 1st March

Land of My Other

The Breath

Released 13 October 2023

Land Of My Other is a place of memories and melodies, lyricism and lore. A place of sunlight, faerie-tales and rowan trees; of grief, incarceration and thunder in darkness. A place where ancestral trauma and colonial injustice meet blazing pride, romantic self-rule and hands held in a circle in the sea. Where songs are sung with feeling, instruments are everywhere and music lives deep in the bones.

By Online Editor

Published on Thu, 27 February 25

Ríoghnach Connolly wins RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Award

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