AFTER more than 15 years, The Irish House Party are preparing to bring their show to Britain.
Founded by musicians Declan Quinn and Gerry Nolan, the show offers people an intimate evening of traditional Irish song, dance and humour, all designed to recreate the atmosphere of an old-fashioned house party.
“We set up the show together about 15 or 16 years ago in Dublin,” says Quinn, who is originally from Templeogue, while Nolan hails from Co. Carlow.
“At the time, a lot of tourists weren’t really getting to see proper, authentic traditional Irish music.”
Now, the group are gearing up for their first major tour outside Ireland.
Arriving in Wales on February 1 at Mwldan, Cardigan, they will be travelling everywhere from Salisbury to Liverpool and ending at William Aston Hall in Wrexham on June 21.
For Quinn, the move feels particularly meaningful.
“So many people emigrated in the 50s and 60s to England,” he says.
“The Irish House Party really ties in with that tradition. These parties often happened before people left, a last night of music and dancing with family and friends.”
Like many traditional musicians, Quinn cut his teeth at informal sessions around Dublin, where he met Nolan, a guitarist and singer.
“We started gigging together, playing in various sessions, and that’s where the idea grew from.”
The pair wanted to recreate the kind of music they loved: not the amplified pub performances increasingly common in the city, but the spontaneous house sessions where multiple musicians would gather, playing indigenous instruments such as the uilleann pipes, harp, bodhrán and flute.
“We wanted people to feel like they were in a friend’s house, with all the fun and music that comes with that type of party,” Quinn says.
(Photo by The Irish House Party)The first show took place upstairs in Toner’s pub in Dublin… and almost nobody came.
“The first night it was just myself, Gerry, two musicians and my dad,” Quinn laughs.
But slowly, word spread. Before social media took hold, the show grew organically through word of mouth and a simple website.
Over the years, the intimacy of the show has led to more than a few memorable moments.
At one early performance, Quinn recalls a man in the front row asking if he could sing a song.
Instead of singing, the man produced a ring, dropped to one knee and proposed to his girlfriend mid-show. “Thankfully she said yes, or it would have been a very awkward ending for us.”
Today, The Irish House Party runs three to four nights a week from March to November, with a core group of five musicians and a wider pool of performers.
It now takes place in the Lansdowne Hotel, an 18th-century Georgian house on Pembroke Road in Dublin.
“It suits the show perfectly,” Quinn says. “It’s very intimate, about 100 people max, and we’ve had opportunities to move, but we don’t want to. There’s nothing else like it in Dublin.”
“It’s for every generation,” Quinn says. “People come with their children and their parents.”
The upcoming tour has already been road-tested and extended due to demand.
“It’s a real feel-good show,” Quinn says. “The thing people always tell us afterwards is that their spirits were lifted, and they leave with a smile on their face.”
After all these years, that original idea, born over a pint in Dublin, is now ready to resonate with Irish communities across Britain, one house party at a time.
For tour and ticket information you can find them: here
