A night of musical and literary celebration in honour of Luke Kelly is set to take place next week.
The event will coincide with the unveiling of two new Luke Kelly sculptures taking place that morning.
The sculptures will be presented by President Michael D Higgins on Wednesday which marks the 35th anniversary of Kelly’s death.
The concert takes place on January 30th at 7.30pm at Liberty Hall, with artists who collaborated with him and those who have been heavily inspired by him taking part.
This includes close friends and special guests such as John Sheahan, the last surviving member of The Dubliners, Glen Hansard, rising spoken word artist Natalya O’Flaherty and much-loved singer and songwriter, Damien Dempsey.
The evening will include vibrant and rousing renditions of some of Luke’s and Ireland’s best-loved poetry, literature and music. Also due to take the stage are musician Andy Irvine, multi-instrumentalist and folk legend Finbar Furey, singer-songwriter Aoife Scott, Ian Lynch of acclaimed merging Dublin trad-folk ensemble Lankum and George Murphy, who was born on the 2nd anniversary of Luke Kelly’s death and whose unmistakable voice has been compared to Luke’s many times. John Kelly, award-winning RTÉ broadcaster, will MC the evening.
Two sculptures will be erected on either in the Dubliner singer’s memory. A marble portrait head of Luke, which is over two metres high will be unveiled at 3.30pm on 30th January on Royal Canal, Guild St/Sheriff St and the city’s second sculpture was created by one of Ireland’s most prominent figurative sculptors, John Coll, who also created the city’s Patrick Kavanagh statue. Due to be unveiled at 2pm on South King St on the same day, it features a life-size bronze, seated Luke Kelly singing and playing banjo and was donated to the city by the late Gerry Hunt.
Tickets for the concert are priced at €11.80 including booking fee and are available on Ticketmaster, doors open at 7.30pm. The show starts at 8pm sharp.
