Seamie O’Dowd was brought up by parents steeped in the musical traditions of South Sligo. His mother, Sheila, was a highly respected musician and teacher whose father and brothers all played fiddle, while his father, Joe, was renowned as a fiddle player among musicians and music lovers worldwide. Seamie himself began playing fiddle at about eight years of age. Highly sought after as a session and recording musician, Seamie has travelled the world with his music and has a broad catalogue of recordings to his name. He has been a tutor at the South Sligo Summer School on a regular basis since its beginnings in the late 1980s, teaching fiddle for six of its first seven years and teaching traditional guitar since the mid 2000s up to the present day.

Ray Coen hails from Drumiskabole, Ballisodare, County Sligo and has many years experience as both a guitar and fiddle player.  His first musical memory is singing and dancing in the family kitchen. He got his first guitar at age 11, but didn’t tune it until he was 13. Into his teens, he turned to electric guitar, playing Rock’n’Roll and Heavy Metal with his first bands Bad Taste and China Red. Eventually the Sligo traditional music scene started calling to him, and he started playing mandola, banjo and fiddle.

In 2000 with Rodney Lancashire he recorded an album of traditional songs called Mactíre. In 2002 he joined Deirde Byron-Smith, Anna Houston and Tommy Scanlon for the Cadenza album Attic Notes where he contributed original songs and tunes. 2009 saw his solo album Out of Sight released. Since then he has performed all over Ireland, England, Europe and Japan playing and recording original, traditional and World music. He is currently a member of The Craic Addicts, The Atlantic Orchestra and No Crows and is touring with fellow No Crows musician Steve Wickham this year, having played at Celtic Connections in Glasgow earlier in the year as well as more recently in the Coleman Centre, Gurteen with upcoming gigs in the UK in early August.

Ray has previously taught guitar at the summer school and we are delighted to welcome him back in 2025.

Shane, from Lavagh, County Sligo – just outside Tubbercurry – grew up in a family steeped in traditional music. An immensely gifted musician, Shane has been teaching traditional guitar at the South Sligo Summer School for many years. He is very much in demand for his accompaniment skills and features on a wide range of recordings including ‘Hurry the Jug’, the much acclaimed album released in the summer of 2019, which also features uilleann pipes tutor Leonard Barry and fiddle tutor Declan Folan.

Seamie O’Dowd was brought up by parents steeped in the musical traditions of South Sligo. His mother, Sheila, was a highly respected musician and teacher whose father and brothers all played fiddle, while his father, Joe, was renowned as a fiddle player among musicians and music lovers worldwide. Seamie himself began playing fiddle at about eight years of age. Highly sought after as a session and recording musician, Seamie has travelled the world with his music and has a broad catalogue of recordings to his name. He has been a tutor at the South Sligo Summer School on a regular basis since its beginnings in the late 1980s, teaching fiddle for six of its first seven years and teaching traditional guitar since the mid 2000s up to the present day.