Holland College’s Music Performance program, part of the School of Performing Arts, is playing host to Eoin Ó Beaglaoich, an Irish concertina and accordion player, who will conduct workshops for students and hold concerts that will be open to the public as musician in residence at the school.

Ó Beaglaoich’s visit has been facilitated through the Ireland Canada University Foundation, an organization which facilitates scholarly exchanges between the two countries. He will be dividing his time between UPEI, where he will teach a course in each of the fall and winter semesters, and Holland College’s School of Performing Arts, a partnership with Confederation Centre of the Arts.

His father, well-known singer Seamus Begley, will join Eoin for a concert at noon on November 22. Members of the public are welcome to attend.

The father and son hail from the west of County Kerry, on the Dingle Peninsula on the southwest coast of Ireland. Prince Edward Island has strong ties to the region. Several families from Kerry settled here, primarily in the Tignish area. A quick scan of the phone book shows the Brennans, McGraths, Kennedys, McCarthys, Daltons, Dorgans, Readys and Nelligans, Kerry families who settled in Tignish in the mid-1800s, are still in the area. Other Kerry names can be found in Covehead, where the Reardons settled, and Hope River, which became home for the Sullivans.

The mandate of the Ireland Canada University Foundation is to foster these deep-rooted ties between Canada and Ireland, Ó Beaglaoich explains:

"There have traditionally been strong links between the two countries and this initiative aims to continue to foster and strengthen those links. I will try as best I can to make myself available to anyone interested in learning about the Irish language, the music and the culture."

“Eoin will provide opportunities for students of the School of Performing Arts and the general public to listen, learn, and engage in the enduring nuances of Irish music,” said Gaylene Carragher, program manager for the School of Performing Arts.

Ó Beaglaoich intends to soak up as much of the Island’s traditions and music as he can before he returns to Ireland next summer, having taken some time off this year from his teaching position at Maynooth University.

In this picture: Eoin Ó Beaglaoich in front of one of the School of Performing Arts music buildings on the Prince of Wales Campus of Holland College.