Latest News - Jim qualifies for All-Ireland finals! Read more here.
(key-OHL nah MAH-ra)
Lively, foot-tapping Irish jigs and reels from Sussex-based fiddle and guitar duo, Emma Clarke and Jim Richards.
Emma and Jim are experienced Irish session and ceilidh musicians, noted for their nifty-fingered tunes-playing. Most of their repertoire is Irish traditional music, because they love it. Ceol Na Mara (Irish for Sounds of the Sea) bring you spirited, bright and bouncy tunes played by two highly-regarded musicians.
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Here's a list of upcoming gigs. Come and see us!
| March | |
20 FRI | Tunes for St Patrick's 17:45 |
| Grounded @ The Forge, Ringmer | |
| Great Coffee, freshly prepared food, licensed bar and outstanding service. All in the heart of Ringmer! ☕️ Come and see us at Grounded. | |
| April | |
19 SUN | The Shamrock Sessions 2pm - 7pm |
| The Lawns room, Landsdowne Hotel, Eastbourne | |
| Organised by local group, Irish in Eastbourne, this will be a celebration of all things Irish including music, dance, ceilidh and craic! And it's only a fiver! Tickets available here Get one quick - while stocks last! | |
| May | |
2 SAT | Wilderness Wood May Day Ceilidh |
| Wilderness Wood, Main Road, Hadlow Down TN22 4HJ | |
| Members' May Day celebration. Members are invited to join Emily and Dan for a Beltaine event, with procession around the woods, ceilidh and songs around the fire into the night. | |
| May | |
15 FRI | Tunes for Sippin' 17:45 |
| Grounded @ The Forge, Ringmer | |
| Our second visit to The Forge, Ringmer! ☕️ Your second chance to come and see us at Grounded this year :) | |
| June | |
7 SUN | Sunny Sunday (well, hopefully) 16:00 |
| The Hurst Arms, Eastbourne | |
| Harvey's pub and mentioned in the CAMRA good beer guide 2025, The Hurst Arms is small, but perfectly formed. Come and hear us playing some Sunday tunes. | |
| August | |
21 FRI | Music in the greenhouse 19:00 |
| Babylon Eco Centre, Uckfield TN22 3JP | |
| Beautiful setting, in the heart of the Ashdown Forest, we are delighted that Babylon Eco Centre have invited us back to lift the lid off their huge greenhouse for a second time 🎶 It'll be us, plus a special guest. Should be a great evening. | |
| Sip Sep | |
18 FRI | Tunes for Sippin' 17:45 |
| Grounded @ The Forge, Ringmer | |
| Our third visit to The Forge this year ☕️ Third time lucky? We're back at Grounded in September | |
Jim was absolutely delighted to receive a gold medal after competing in the London & South regional Fleadh Cheoil, in the accompaniment category, playing guitar.
There are 4 regional fleadhs (festivals), organised by branches of Comhaltas Ceolteoirí Éireann (The Irish Music Society) and the winners from each regional competition go through to compete at the All-Britain, later in the year.
With an overall score of 90%, Jim qualifies for the All-Britain competition. Grateful thanks to Emma for playing the tunes so beautifully :)
Fleadh Cheoil na Breataine - here we come! Stay tuned for the results...
After a successful regional fleadh in London, we found ourselves travelling all the way up to Liverpool for the All-Britain competition.
A tougher contest this time, with the reigning champion in the line-up. But we took a deep breath and somehow managed to pull off a silver medal and perhaps more importantly - a place in the grandaddy of all them all: the All-Ireland!
So, on Friday 9th August, we'll be at Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann, in Wexford. Can't wait to experience all the fun of the fleadh :) The official fleadh website is here.
After earning a place at the coveted Fleadh Cheoil na h'Éireann as a finalist in the Senior Accompaniment competition, I was privileged to compete and had a great time at the fleadh. The competition was tough as expected and the standard was very high - as was the pressure of being filmed for TG4! Interestingly, no guitarists placed this year and the top three awards all went to pianists. So, no medal for me this time but I may be back... stay tuned :) Thanks to friends and family who came to support me and/or tuned in to the live stream.
In a nutshell, we play lush Irish tunes that we curate from all over the place. We add some special magic, put them together into sets and then we play them for people to enjoy.
We have a broad repertoire of Irish music, plus some tunes from further afield such as Scotland, The Shetlands, a few French-Canadian pieces etc. but the majority of our music is Irish. 'Cos we love it. People enjoy Irish music at:
We can also provide ceilidhs for wedding receptions and a variety of different events. Ceilidhs are great because they:
Here’s some tracks from a live session we recorded professionally. You can hear these and the rest of the tunes from the session on our SoundCloud, here.
A few short video clips to give you a taste of our music.
“Bursting with energy...
This is real foot-tapping stuff.