Islanders Event – 7pm – 12am – Thurs 28th May 2026
Coordinated by Sherkin Islander: Paula Quirke
The Open Ear – Sherkin Residents Night took place on Thursday May 28th as part of Open Ear Festival 2026, the festival’s opening night. Outreach and community engagement for the evening began in March 2026 and ran through April and into May, reaching out to a range of the islands and their communities to help shape the evening. Members of the island community – particularly those with strong local connections – were invited to extend recommendations and invitations to musicians they wanted to see present at the event, so the programming itself grew out of the island community rather than being decided from outside it, reflecting the genuinely welcoming, “bringing people into your home” character of the Sherkin Island engagements.
The evening was a strong expression of Open Ear’s commitment to inclusive, cross-generational arts participation. The fireside in particular brought together seasonal workers on the island on a temporary basis, members of the Ukrainian community living locally on a semi-permanent basis, and islanders with deep multi-generational heritage – alongside the wider festival audience. That mix of backgrounds and voices, set against a genuinely varied musical programme, is central to what Open Ear is trying to platform.
The night also brought in musicians from beyond Sherkin, including Danny from Cape Clear and an uilleann piper representing Heir Island – hosting guests from neighbouring islands in this way widens the inclusive reach of the event and builds positive momentum for the wider conversation around the West Cork Islands. The performing line-up itself reflected a further layer of that inclusivity: a mix of long-term island-based musicians – including Danny (Cape Clear), Juno Cheetal, BanSí and Brigid Madden and AINM, with Brigid Maden a regular Sherkin performer – and performers who grew up on the island (or are children of island parents), now living around West Cork but returning to bring their music back home.
