Kíla is an Irish folk music group formed in 1987 in Irish language secondary school Coláiste Eóin in County Dublin.

Band History

Kíla began in 1987 in the secondary in Coláiste Eoin; in the first year they busked nearly every week and played 44 concerts, mostly at their father's publishing company book launches, their mother's art exhibition openings and their brother's political campaign launches. Their first pay-in concert was upstairs in the Baggot Inn and was attended by only 3 people one of whom was the broadcaster Bláthnaid Ní Chofaigh.

The original lineup of the yet to be named band was Eoin Dillon (uilleann pipes), Colm Mac Con Iomaire (fiddle), Rossa Ó Snodaigh (whistle, bones), Rónán Ó Snodaigh (bodhrán), Karl Odlum (bass), and David Odlum (guitar). In 1988 one of Rossa and Rónán's older brother's - flute player Colm Ó Snodaigh, joined the band before the first recordings were made. Rónán, Rossa, and Colm Ó Snodaigh are sons of publisher Pádraig Ó Snodaigh and artist Clíodna Cussen and are brothers of Irish TD, Aengus Ó Snodaigh.

In 1991, Colm Mac Con Iomaire and Dave Odlum left Kíla to join The Frames, an Irish rock band. In the same year, Dee Armstrong and Eoin O'Brien joined the band as replacements. Dave Reidy also joined as a lead guitarist, though he emigrated to San Francisco a year later. Karl was then replaced by Ed Kelly on bass who emigrated to Scotland a little over a year after the recording Mind the Gap in 1994. Eoin O'Brien was replaced by Lance Hogan. Laurence O Keefe filled in temporarily on bass until Brian Hogan assumed that position prior to recording Tóg É Go Bog É.

In 2003, in a review of their album Luna Park, Kíla's blend of Irish traditional music and world music with a modern rock sensibility was credited with breathing new life into contemporary Irish folk music.^[1]

In 2009, Donegal guitarist Seanan Brennan joined the band to replace Lance who was on a sabbatical. He has remained with the band since then, bringing an electric guitar to the line up for the first time since Eoin O'Brien was a member. He made his first appearance with Kíla in early January of that year on a televised version of Leath ina Dhiaidh a hOcht.

In 2008 Kíla, along with U2, Shane MacGowan, Glen Hansard, Damien Dempsey, The Dubliners, and a host of other artists recorded "The Ballad of Ronnie Drew".

Kíla have played in 35 countries and at some of the biggest festivals around the world, like Montreaux Jazz Festival, Womad and Cambridge Folk Festivals, Rainforest World Music Festival in Borneo, Electric Picnic, Womadelaide, Glastonbury, and the Stockholm Water Festival. They have also performed at the launch of the Special Olympics in Ireland, and at many of President Mícheál Ó hUiginn's garden parties.

In 2010, the band collaborated with French composer Bruno Coulais on the soundtrack of Cartoon Saloon'sOscar nominated movie The Secret of Kells. That same year their music was heavily featured in two other feature films - Maeve Murphy's Beyond the Fire and Ciarán O'Connor's Trafficked. Kíla's music also features in the award-winning documentary film Fight or Flight.

In late 2011, Kíla published Book of Tunes. Containing over 100 of their compositions and photos, poems & prose, the book was described as 'a masterpiece' by their friend Seán Laffey from Irish Music Magazine.

2015 could be termed the 'year of the awards and nominations' for Kíla. They collaborated on the music for the Oscar nominated animated feature, Song of the Sea with Bruno Coulais. They received an Annie Awards nomination for 'Outstanding Achievement in Music in an Animated Feature Production'. They also received an Emmy nomination for their work on a Crossing The Line production called 'The Secret Life of the Shannon'. In June, Eoin Dillon left and James Mahon from Shankill took his place.

In 2020, Kíla recorded music for two films: Cartoon Saloon's Wolfwalkers, and Tomás Ó Súilleabháin's debut film Arracht.

During the two Covid lockdowns, they performed six online lockdown concerts culminating in a Wolfwalker's themed St Patrick's day broadcast going live to all the Irish consulates across the world and post lockdown went on tour and produced 3 larger shows – Kíla & Tumble Circus Sept 2021, Kíla le Prás - New Year's Eve 2021, Kíla & Cairde for Tradfest in the National Stadium 2022.

Band members

The current lineup of Kíla is:

• Rossa Ó Snodaigh: wind, skin, spoons, and stringed instruments
• Colm Ó Snodaigh
• Dee Armstrong
• Seanán Brennan: guitar, bass and mandola
• Brian Hogan
• Dave Hingerty
• James Mahon

Images

Rónán Ó Snodaigh

Colm Ó Snodaigh

Rossa Ó Snodaigh

Discography

References

External links

• Kila.ie, Kíla's official website
• IrishMusicDB information
• Musical Rooms Part 13; Kíla, by Sinéad Gleeson, February 18, 2008
• Ón Taobh tuathail Amach & The Dream I Haven't Showed Her, Rónán Ó Snodaigh performance on Other Voices RTÉ 2002
• Review of Kíla & Oki by Jamie Rowland, Pennyblackmusic, March 2007
• Review of Kíla at The Electric Picnic 2008 by Jan Ní fhlanagáin, Cluas.com, September 2008
• Excerpt of an article about Kíla by Donald Mahoney 2007
• Article by Nadine O Regan about Kíla & Oki in The Sunday Business Post, 13 August 2006
• Kíla concert review by Neil King in September 2009
• Kíla concert preview by Roger levesque in The Edmonton Journal in August 2011
• Kíla Book of Tunes review in Folkworld.de, March 2012