Ciara Owens

Ciara Owens is a young musician and Irish dancer from Liverpool. Having danced since she was young, Ciara joined her local Liverpool Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann branch at the age of 7 to learn the mandolin, before going onto pick up the tenor banjo two years later. Through Comhaltas, Ciara has performed for numerous concerts, fundraisers and sessions as well as competing in multiple Fleadh Cheoil’s as a solo musician, duets and as a member of the branch’s ceilidh band.

We had the pleasure of recording Ciara at the Williamson Tunnels. The Williamson Tunnels were built under the home of tobacco business owner, Joseph Williamson. After buying their home in 1805, Williamson went on to build more properties, all of which would have a cellar built in and tunnels that spread from property to property. Thanks to the volunteers that work as the Friends of Williamson Tunnels (FOWT). The volunteers hold tours of the different chambers within the tunnels, the paths that have been discovered as well as explaining all the artefacts that have been found throughout the years while digging further into the foundations. Alongside the tours, the FOWT continue to use their spare time to continue digs and find more tunnels and spaces below Liverpool, piecing together more of Williamson’s story as they go.

The first set that we recorded with Ciara Owens was a set of reels called The Maid of Mont Cisco into The Boys of Malin, all of which are traditional Irish folk tunes. The second set of tunes were made up of three jigs, The Spotted Dog, The Seanhamac Tube and the Mouse in the Kitchen. While a majority of these are traditional Irish tunes, the last tune ‘Mouse in the Kitchen’ was written by fiddle player, Colin Farrell.

Follow the link for their lovely article about our recording session:

https://williamsontunnels.com/2021/03/09/ciara-owens-performs-a-feast-for-the-ears-in-the-banqueting-hall/