John Spillane is a native of Cork, the county he lovingly describes as 'the centre of the universe' and it has been a huge influence on this singer / songwriter. His debut solo album ' The Wells of The World' released in 1997 was hailed as one of the albums of this or any other year. Before embarking on his solo career, John played for seven years with Cork based "The Stargazers" and more recently as singer with trad giants, Nomos. The hugely successful album 'Éist' featured 'Eist do Bheal' performed by Sinead Lohan and written by Spillane and Louis de Paor. It's follow up, ' Éist Arís' also featured one of John's songs. John's second album ' Will We Be Brilliant Or What?' is a collection of thirteen songs that tell the story of his life up to now and his third album “Hey Dreamer” released in April ’05 went into the Irish charts at number 4. In March 2003 and also in March 2006 John won the prestigious Meteor Ireland Music Award in the Best Folk/Traditional Act category.

Louis de Paor was born in Cork in 1961, Louis de Paor has been involved with the contemporary renaissance of poetry in Irish since 1980 when he was first published in the poetry journal Innti which he subsequently edited for a time. A four time winner of the Seán Ó Ríordáin/Oireachtas Award, the premier award for a new collection of poems in Irish, he lived in Australia from 1987 to 1996. His first bilingual collection, Aimsir hreicneach/Freckled Weather was short listed for the Victorian Premier's Award for Literary Translation. He was also granted a Writer's Fellowship by the Australia Council in 1995. He is the recipient of the Lawrence O'Shaughnessy Award 2000, the first poet in Irish to achieve that distinction. A recent collection, agus rud eile de, was awarded the Oireachtas prize for the best collection of poems in Irish in 2003. Louis is Director of the Centre for Irish Studies at the National University of Ireland, Galway. Ag Greadadh Bas sa Reilig - Clapping in the Cemetery was published in 2005 by Cló Iar-Chonnachta.

Meg Elis is a novelist and poet. She has published collections of poetry and short stories and won the Prose Medal at the Rhyl National Eisteddfod in 1985 with her novel, Cyn Daw’r Gaeaf. She is a freelance writer and translator, and was formerly Academic Translator at the University of Wales, Bangor and chief translator with Gwynedd Council, and a former deputy editor with ‘Y Faner’. She is a member of the Gorsedd of Bards. She is also a former member of the Wales Consumer Council and the Wales Arts Council, and is a member of the Liturgical Commission of the Church in Wales.

Rex Lee Jim is a Navajo poet, essayist, playwright, actor and director, who was born and still lives in Rock Point, Arizona, within the Navajo Nation. His grandparents were medicine people; he himself is a Blessing Way Singer (Navajo Medicine Man). Navajo is his first language and he writes mostly in the Navajo language. He has a BA in English from Princeton University and a MA in English from the Bread Loaf School of English of Middlebury College, Vermont. Mr. Jim sits on the Navajo Nation Council and serves on the Public Safety Committee. As a Navajo legislator, he works to enact laws and works on international affairs for the Navajo Nation as well. He assisted in the drafting of the declaration of the rights of the indigenous peoples both at the United Nations and the Organization of American States levels.

In 1998 he published “Duchas T’aa Koo Dine”, a trilingual poetry edition in Navajo, English and Irish. Other publications include “Ahi Ni’ Nikisheegiizh,” “Dancing Voices: Wisdom of the American Indian ,” “Saad”as well as others books. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship in 1996, the Spencer Foundation Award for teacher research in 1999, and the De Witt-Wallace Reader’s Digest Fellowship for 1998, 1999, and 2000.

Sinéad Mac Aodha has been the Director of Ireland Literature Exchange, the organization which promotes Irish literature abroad primarily through translation, since 2003. Before that she served as the Literature Officer at the Arts Council for seven years. She was a member of the jury for the Bisto Children’s Books of the Year Awards in 2006 and was also a judge for the Irish Times Theatre Awards in that year. In 2005 she co-ordinated a visit to China by a number of key representatives from leading Irish literature and cultural bodies. She serves on the organising committee of the Franco-Irish Book festival and on the board of the Irish Theatre Magazine.

Lasairfhíona Ní Chonaola is from Inishere, the Aran Islands. Her solo album An Raicín Álainn (The Beautiful Comb), launched at The Interceltic Festival in Lorient, Brittany in 2002, continues to receive critical acclaim. It was chosen by HotPress music magazine as one of the top 10 Folk/Traditional albums of 2002 and the American Celtic Connections radio show chose it as one of the Best of Irish CDs released in 2002.

Lasairfhíona has performed on many radio and television programmes including The Late Late Show, Up For The Match, The John Creedon Show and on a documentary about Sinéad O'Connor. Lasairfhíona was the subject of a special documentary about her life and singing on Léargas, RTÉ. Her album was described by fRoots music magazine as "one of the most sumptuous albums of traditional singing to have emerged for some time."

Singing sisters Maighread and Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill were born in Kells, Co. Meath. Their mother Bríd was from Gurteen in south Sligo while their father Aodh O Domhnaill was a native of Donegal.

Tríona’s unique style and repertoire of traditional singing comes down to her through generations of the O’Dhomhnaill family and Maighread and Tríona’s repertoire of traditional songs in Gaelic and English is distinctly regional. Tríona and brother Mícheál are former members of the The Bothy Band, one of the most influential groups in contemporary Irish traditional music. During her temporary re-location to the USA Tríona formed the band “Touchstone” who recorded two albums before forming Relativity with her brother, Mícheál and Scottish musical powerhouses Johnny and Phil Cunningham. Tríona then recorded with the extremely successful Nightnoise who achieved significant popularity internationally. Maighréad meanwhile went on to pursue a solo career which culminated in two landmark recordings ‘Maighréad Ní Dhomhnaill’ in 1978 and ‘Gan Dhá Phingin Spré /No Dowry’ in 1991, both issued on the Gael Linn label.

With their brother Micheál, a fine singer and instrumental player, Maighread and Tríona formed the seminal traditional group ‘Skara Brae’ in the early 1970’s. It was through this group and its one recording, now a classic, that the regional songs of Donegal were introduced to a wide audience in Ireland and abroad. The fourth Skara Brae member, was Dáithí Sproule now a member of Altan. While both Maighréad and Triona pursue separate careers they fortunately also still perform together. In 1999 they recorded the album ‘Idir an Da Sholas’ with Donal Lunny.

Maighread was recently honoured with the TG4 Traditional Singer of the Year Award, 2005 in recognition of her enormous contribution to Irish song over the last 3 decades and Tríona is working towards the release of an album of solo piano music. Their live performances are unforgettable heart rending events marked by high tides of emotion running on both sides of the stage. The sound of their solo and combined voices is indescribable but lingers in the memory forever. No opportunity to hear them should be missed at any cost. The listener will be enriched immeasurably by the experience.

Professor Séamas Ó Catháin, a native of county Tyrone and a graduate of Queen’s University Belfast, is currently Director of the National Folklore Collection at University College Dublin. He taught at the University of Uppsala and University College Galway before becoming Archivist at the Department of Irish Folklore and subsequently Professor of Irish Folklore at University College Dublin. At UCD, he also served as Dean of the Faculty of Celtic Studies (1990-1996) and was appointed Head of the School of Irish, Celtic Studies, Irish Folklore and Linguistic on its establishment in 2005. He takes a keen interest in the work of the Irish Folklore Commission, and in folk narrative and festival customs and has written numerous books and articles about various aspects of Irish folk tradition. His book, Formation of a Folklorist, which deals with aspects of the career of Séamus Ó Duilearga/James Hamilton Delargy (1899-1980), is due to be published shortly by Comhairle Bhéaloideas Éireann/The Folklore of Ireland Council.

Micheál Ó Conghaile was born in Co Galway in 1962. He established the publishing company Cló Iar-Chonnachta in 1985 and have since published over 300 books and 200 traditional Irish music albums. A prolific and talented writer, he has published poetry, short stories, a novel, a play, and a novella, and has also translated works. In 1997 the Irish American Cultural Institute awarded him The Butler Literary Award. His short story Athair, (Fathar), from his second collection of short stories An Fear a Phléasc, (The Man Who Exploded), was awarded the Hennessy Literary Award that year, and he was also awarded the Hennessy Young Irish Writer of the Year Award. In 1998 he was elected to Aosdána. His first novel, Sna Fir, (Among Men), was published in 1999, and was shortlisted for The Irish Times Literature Awards 2001. His works have been translated into Romanian, Croatian, Albanian, German, Polish and English. Micheál’s third collection of short stories, An Fear nach nDéanann Gáire, (The Man who Never Laughs) was published in July 2003 and his first play Cúigear Chonamara staged at An Taibhdhearc in 2003 was awarded the Stewart Parker/BBC Ulster Award, an Oireachtas Award and a Writers Week/Listowel Award. From 1999 to 2002, he was writer in Residence at Queen’s University, Belfast and at the University of Ulster Coleraine. His second play, Jude, will be produced at An Taibhdhearc in Galway in March 2007.

Kieran O'Conor is a graduate of University College, Dublin (UCD) and has a PhD from University College, Cardiff. He worked during much of the 1990’s for the Archaeological Survey branch of the National Monuments Service in Counties Roscommon, Sligo, Longford, Westmeath and Wexford. In 1996 he excavated Carlow Castle as part of his work for the latter institution. He has taken part in excavations and field surveys in England , Wales, mainland Greece and Crete. He was appointed a Research Fellow at the Discovery Programme in 1997 and was then made director of the Medieval Rural Settlement project at this institution in early 1999. He joined the Department of Archaeology, NUI, Galway, as a lecturer in September 2000. His main research interests lie in the field of medieval rural settlement in Ireland. He is author of the 1998 book The Archaeology of Medieval Rural Settlement in Ireland and numerous articles in scholarly journals. Prior to studying archaeology, Dr O'Conor served in the Irish Army and saw active service in Lebanon in 1979/1980. He is a half-brother of the present O'Conor Don.

Alan Titley was born in 1947 in Cork City. He attended Coláiste Chríost Rí, St. Patrick's College, Drumcondra, Dublin, and University College Dublin where he studied Irish, Philosophy and English. He was a lecturer of Education and History in Mount Carmel College of Education in Nigeria from 1967 to 1969, during which time he travelled widely in Africa. He taught in The School for Deaf Boys in Cabra from 1969 to 1974. He was head of the Irish Department in St. Patrick's College, Drumcondra from 1981 until appointed Professor of Modern Irish in University College Cork in 2006.

His play, Tagann Godot, was produced in the Abbey Theatre/Peacock Theatre in 1990 and An Ghráin agus an Ghruaim was produced in 1999. His plays have also been broadcast by the BBC and RTÉ radio. He is a scholar, a columnist with the Irish Times, a novelist, short story and fable writer, literary historian, broadcaster and playwright. He has won many prizes. Most recently his novel for young people, Amach, won the 2004 Bisto prize. He lives in Cork.