Nuala Kennedy grew up in Dundalk, Co. Louth where she was a member of the ceilidh band Ceoltoiri Oga Oghrialla. In 1995, she moved to Scotland. She is known for her work with trio Fine Friday, with whom she has toured extensively and recorded two critically acclaimed CDs, Gone Dancing (March 2002) and Mowing the Machair (Dec 2004).
An accomplished and versatile musician, with a wide repertoire of Scottish traditional and contemporary music, she is much in demand as a session musician and played with the Celtic big band The Unusual Suspects.
Nuala has tutored flute at the Boxwood Flute School and The Coast String Association in Canada, and on the Traditional Music Degree in Newcastle University. She has worked for Channel 4 ‘ideas factory’, teaches for Feisean Nan Gaidheal and assists teachers using ABC, an innovative new creative music program for primary schools.
In 2006, Nuala toured the U.K. and Ireland with Harem Scarem alongside Bonnie Prince Billy (a.k.a. indie poet Will Oldham) and returned to Cape Breton Island for Celtic Colours International Festival.
Nuala now lives in County Clare with her Appalachian singer husband A. J. Roach and their two young children. She released Shorelines in 2023.
Discography:
The New Shoes (Compass, 2007)
Tune In (Compass, 2010)
Enthralled, with Oliver Schroer (Borealis, 2011)
Noble Stranger (Compass, 2012)
Behave the Bravest (Under the Arch, 2016)
Shorelines (Under the Arch Records, 2023)