Murphy's Lore is a Bournemouth/Dorset based celtic band, performing traditional Irish music, for ceilidhs or barn dances and general good craic! Welcome to our new website, have a look around and get a feel for what we do!

We perform a good selection of traditional and contemporary Irish music - tunes to dance to and songs to sing along with. If you don't know the dances, our caller will teach you. If you don't know the songs, just tap your feet and clap your hands!

We also perform a range of Scottish tunes and songs to compliment our Celtic feel and when performing with Richard we have a small battery of English tunes, as well as some of his own compositions which reflect his musical influences from across Europe. To hear us, use the player to the right on this and other pages. Most clips are live, so what you hear is what you get!

At the beginning of 2008, to use a musical analogy, we fitted new strings, retuned and returned with a fresh new sound. The 'new' line up works very well, and is now firmly established. 2009 was our busiest year to date, 2010 has been going very well and bookings are rolling in for 2011. For a quick check on our availability, click on the dates link at the top of the page for a list of our current bookings.

We will cover Dorset, Hampshire and Wiltshire in general but you are welcome to try us if further afield.

News and upcoming events

Noeleen and Alex will be performing as "A Half of Murphy's" at The Anonymous Travelling Market at Honeybrook Farm, near Wimborne on Saturday 20th November from 1PM - 2PM.

On a different note, we are pleased to hear that our good friends at 'Caring Canines' have received The Queen`s Award for Voluntary Service. CARING CANINES is a local non-profit making voluntary group working in the community helping people of all ages to understand dogs and be confident in their company. They work to break down barriers and to enhance the lives of those people who miss animal companionship. Our association goes back a number of years, having performed at their annual social since 2004. Congratulations to Julie, Pete, Sue and all their volunteers and of course their K9 companions.

8th July Saw us open the weekend's entertainment for Milford On Sea Music Festival. An evening of Music and Song with a full marquee. Everyone was in fine voice, joining in with songs they knew and we had a guest appearance by Brian Quinn who had just returned from Ireland! Beer was great and the audience did manage a few dances too. A Hooley was had by all....

Our 'Barn Dance in a Barn' for 'Help for Heroes' and 'Headway' at Netherhampton was a real barnstorming evening. They raised a superb £2600 for the two charities. Many thanks to everyone who helped organise this and to all those who turned up. A selection of pictures from the evening is below, hover over the picture to stop the slide, click the picture to take you to our MySpace photo album.

Ceol agus craic!