Cavan songwriter Lisa O’Neill will hold a special performance for two nights at The Dock this November.
O'Neill's recent performances include the sold-out run of ‘Symphony for the Moons’ shows at Dublin’s National Concert Hall with the National Symphony Orchestra, London’s Barbican with the Britten Sinfonia, and a 4-night residency in January at The Gate Theatre. Lisa has also been playing alongside The Pogues as a special guest singer on their current tour.
Her acclaimed last album All of This Is Chance ranked highly on many critics 2023’s Albums of The Year Lists. It was selected by Gideon Coe at BBC 6 Music as his Album Of The Year, alongside Songlines’, Uncut Magazine’s and The Quietus’ Album of the Year selections. The album was No. 3 in Mojo Magazine’s Folk Albums Of The Year and Bob Boilen at NPR also deemed it his No.3 Album of The Year.
"Giving voice to the disenfranchised is something she does so well, with a particular affinity for women – “Woman is powerful when not restricted”- she says…. And she is emblematic of this, with a free singularity that can fold in difficult subjects, such as homelessness…" The Irish Times - Gate Theatre Review
O’Neill is a five-time BBC Folk Award nominee, and her album Heard a Long Gone Song was named The Guardian’s 2019 Folk Album of the Year. Two of her songs feature in Peaky Blinders – Blackbird, her own composition, and an adaptation of Bob Dylan’s All the Tired Horses soundtracked the final scene of the epic TV drama. Her song ‘Old Note’ was used in the drama series ‘Say Nothing’.
"The Cavan songwriter has grown in stature in recent years as a valued chronicler of the disenfranchised. Songs of social, political and cultural issues preoccupy her as she proves as adept a storyteller as the playwrights long associated with this room." The Sunday Business Post - Gate Theatre Review
Lisa recently released a single which features vocals from Peter Doherty of The Libertines - ‘Homeless In The Thousands (Dublin in the Digital Age)’ - a song Lisa felt compelled to write in response to the growing issue of homelessness in Dublin. This is not the first time O’Neill has written about social injustices on the cusp of a change. Songs like 'Rock the Machine', about unemployment in the Dublin dock lands, 'When Cash Was King', about the move to a cashless society, and 'Violet Gibson', detailing the Irish woman who attempted to assassinate Mussolini in 1926.
Lisa is currently writing new material for her next album.
