
Irish/Celtic Week Coordinator Daniel Neely plays tenor banjo and mandolin, and is the leader of the Washington Square Harp and Shamrock Orchestra, a New York City group that plays traditional Irish music and recalls the Irish-American dance bands of the early twentieth century. He learned banjo primarily from Mick Moloney, runs a popular session at Lillie’s Bar and Restaurant in NYC and has worked extensively on several of NYC’s Irish Arts Center’s music projects. He is currently the Public Relations Officer of Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann’s Mid-Atlantic Region. Daniel also has a PhD in ethnomusicology, wrote his dissertation on mento (a traditional Jamaican music) and was the music director and banjoist on the Jolly Boys’s most recent album, Great Expectation.
The Washington Square Harp and Shamrock Orchestra’s album is called Since Maggie Dooley Learned the Hooley Hooley.