Nominees

Máirtín O'Connor is an Irish button accordionist who began playing the accordion at the age of nine, and his career has seen him as a member of many traditional music groups including, Midnight Well, De Dannan, The Boys of the Lough, and Skylark.His first solo album 'A Connachtman's Rambles' established him as a solo musician and proved a major critical success. Máirtín has released three very successful albums since; 'Perpetual Motion', released in 1990, 'Chatterbox', released in 1993, and 'The Road West', released in 2005.

Frankie Gavin is one of the genuine legends of Irish music. From his first TV appearance playing the tin-whistle when he was seven, through All-Ireland Championship victories on both fiddle and flute, sixteen albums with the seminal Dé Dannan, seven solo albums, his adventures in the realms of Jazz, Gospel, and Klezmer, to appearances with such luminaries as Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Earl Scruggs, Stephane Grapelli, Sir Yehudi Menuhin, and The Rolling Stones, ‘the prince of Irish fiddlers' is one of the outstanding performers of the past thirty years.

Frankie's band, Hibernian Rhapsody - features accordionist Damien Mullane, pianist Carl Hession, guitarist Mike Galvin, percussionist & flautist Eric Cunningham and singer Michelle Lally.