Music is part of the key to Sean Kelly’s dreams, and next week he’ll get to unlock it.
When the Thames muso encountered his first ever music festival at eight years old, he’d “never seen anything like it in my life”.
It was the annual Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann (All-Ireland Fleadh), in the “sleepy little town” of Buncrana, Donegal in his homeland of Ireland. “I was fascinated how this little town of Buncrana went from a sleepy little town that you could easily park in and we used to just drive through and maybe get an ice cream if we were lucky. Then one year we showed up and the place is jammed. You literally couldn’t move in the street, never mind the pubs,” he said.
There was music at every corner and in every pub and he said all of a sudden the boring little town became more like a rock concert. “I always thought, as a kid, Irish music is something that old people play and certainly not for us kids, but I just fell in love with it.” That was more than 50 years ago now, but it’s the thing that “got me into Irish music”, he said. “I wanted to play Irish music and I did. I managed it and played around the Irish bars. I came to New Zealand in 1990 [and] straight away got into the Irish pub scene.”
It’s exactly why Sean’s recent news is one for the books.
On August 5, the passionate 62-year-old music maker will take centre stage and perform his musical act, Sean Kelly & The Super 8s, at the 2026 Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann – the place where it all started.
He was in the middle of touring around Aotearoa back in May, through the Arts on Tour NZ Trust and funded by Creative NZ, when he found out his application to perform at the Fleadh was successful.
“You could have knocked me down with a feather,” he said.
For the past 10 years, he’d applied to perform at the Fleadh, and while he’d played there before in a street performance, the artist said this upcoming opportunity would be a “fully-fledged, well-paid performance”.
“This year has been huge for the Super 8s. That tour [in May], we were playing these sold-out shows throughout New Zealand. It’s been a lot of time coming together.”
It wasn’t lost on Sean just how significant this moment was.
“As a musician, particularly playing original music as well, it’s just fantastic. It’s what I’ve always dreamed of and dreams do come true.”
His show features live Irish music played to the back-drop of Super 8 movies captured by his father, Seamus Kelly, in and around Derry, Donegal, Ireland between 1958 and 1988. The reality that he’ll soon be back in Ireland and perform in Belfast at the festival “means everything”, he said.
Over the past 10 years, Sean had his moments where he wondered if it was all a waste of time.
“I thought I’m sort of flogging a dead horse trying to keep it alive. And then bang, I get my tour and now I’m playing at the Fleadh.
“It’s like them 10 years where I’ve sort of had plenty of reason to question whether my goal was achievable and worthwhile or whether I’m just dreaming. And all of a sudden, it’s just happened. It’s phenomenal,” he said.
“I’m just so stoked that all them years where possibly other people were questioning it, but I couldn’t help questioning it myself. ‘Am I just wasting my time dreaming that this could actually lead to something?’ And 2026, it’s led to something,” he said.
“And yeah, it was worth it.”
By DAVIDDA HIKATANGATA
