Rónán Ó Snodaigh and Myles O'Reilly announce Cork dates and new album 

If you were to make a shortlist of the most vibrant independent artists in contemporary Irish Music, two figures who would certainly make the cut would be Rónán Ó Snodaigh and Myles O’Reilly.

Rónán, best known as one of the co-founders and lead vocalist of Kila, is also a frequent prolific collaborator as a musician, composer, poet and soundtrack contributer and a longtime cultural agitator, and Myles has roamed in the world of music from being signed to a major label to making iconic music videos and documentaries under the ‘Arbutus Yarns’ monikor to releasing an album in September 2025 with President Michael D Higgins titled ‘Against All Certainty’ as just a few points on his journey so far.

The two men have been collaborating musically as a duo in recent years and have been referred to as a ‘meeting point of story, song, and soundscape, informed as much by tradition as by experimentation’. Building on that, they are releasing their third album, ‘Mise Tusa’, this May on Claddagh Records, following on from the warmly recieved ‘Tá Go Maith’ (2021) and ‘The Beautiful Road’ (2023).

Rónán reckons they not only share a creative mind but a similar work ethic too.

We inspire each other and we just love to be creating

“A mutual friend of ours, Bernard Hayes, introduced us down in Kerry. Both of us were jamming a bit and we started to inspire each other. That’s how I explain it, we inspire each other and we just love to be creating. I prefer working, and I think Myles prefers working, being creative. So when we’re together, it’s just ‘alright, let’s go. The tea’s getting cold, let’s do something!’

“It is my profession you know, I put it upon myself to get busy and be busy. I get that from my family, my Ma and Da, they were just busy, they just did stuff. If I’m on my own in the house, I would be singing to the curtains. I’m kind of compulsive in terms of doing things, I’m happier when there’s a goal.”

When deciding to make a full-length album, Rónán concedes that while there is some pre-production work, he and Myles start each project with an open mindset,

“There are some forms of preparations. We write out lists of things to try or revisit, but then there is always things that you put to one side because they don’t grow or didn’t grow. Even then you have to gauge which song is working or what theme is working, you do go through everything. I imagine it’s like baking 10 different things in 10 ovens. You stick something in all of them and keep checking on them.”

The lead single of this album was released a few weeks ago, and is a cover of a song written by one of Ireland’s most beloved songwriters, ‘Crackling Radio’ by Ger Wolfe (from his album ‘Word & Rhyme’ first released in 1998).

Rónán explained the song choice and how it connects to him; “I’ve always been a big fan of Ger, when I first heard him sing that particular song it went into me. I’ve been carrying it around ever since then, I found that song always made me cry. I used to sing it to myself when I was abroad. I’ve been singing it to myself for about 30 years. For this album, I was thinking that there are a lot of songs that I sing when I’m not doing an actual gig, we used to play ‘Crackling Radio’ in sound checks, it would always put you in the right humour. So I said ‘let’s just put this one out’.”

Ger Wolfe purists might find a few differences between the original and this version though, as Rónán continued.

“Truth be told, I didn’t ever get all the words. I suppose I’d spent so long travelling with it in my head, that I found my own version of it, I have kind of abbreviated it. I’ve rang Ger a few times apologising and saying ‘I’m not doing this on purpose, but I’m more attached to my convoluted version by now’. I really hope he likes it. It still kind of flutters me up, I mean it’s his song, and I’ve kind of remoulded it. It has been giving me solace for 30 years now, I’m hoping I’m pointing at what I think is one of the most beautiful songs in the world, as opposed to making a buzz with it.”

It turns out that Rónán and Myles took a cue from tackling ‘Crackling Radio’ and the whole album features a lot of re-interpreting established work. “Most of them are covers, we did ‘The Fields Of Athenry’ during these sessions too, I kind of changed that as well. We did something from the Seán Ó Riada mass; all things that I’ve been singing to myself for years.”

As well as songs, the duo set some finished texts to new music. “We did something with one of the poems my mam wrote, and another one I did in school as gaeilge, ‘Anseo i Lár an Ghleanna’ by Seán Mac Fhearais.”

While Rónán is primarily known as a percussionist and a lot of Myles’ most recent works feature a lot of modular synthesizers, they didn’t have one working method for writing or recording for ‘Mise Tusa’ according to Rónán.

The thing that works is the thing that you do

“Sometimes we’d start up a track together, for example with ‘Crackling Radio’, we started that track by playing the shakers together and then kind of half-dancing together. We created a ball that we could go into and then record the guitar, record some other noises, and then it grows because you you have something. Sometimes we both play the clicks together, the basic track. I suppose it changes each song, because when we’re there in the studio, I prefer getting on with it, the thing that works is the thing that you do!”

Wider external forces while you are recording also affects the outcome according to Rónán. “The times you’re in completely affect us, and it affects the humour. Are you introspective? Are you fearful? Are you full of hope? Your surroundings definitely affect how you work, not always the choices you make, but how you do that.”

The two will be touring all over Ireland for 2026 in support of the ‘Mise Tusa’ album, but will be drawing upon all their catalogue as opposed to playing only recent material, Rónán is adament the live show supercedes everything else.

“You can’t sacrifice a gig to sell a record.”

• Myles O’Reilly and Rónán Ó Snodaigh play The White Horse in Ballincollig on Saturday, April 25, with tickets available at whitehorse.ie, and play in Levis, Ballydehob, on Friday, July 17, with tickets available at leviscornerhouse.com.
• Their album ‘Mise Tusa’ will be available via claddaghrecords.com