HUGELY talented Falcarragh twins Micheál and Conor Murray kept spirits up in the community and beyond with their popular weekly Facebook livestream from the Shamrock Lodge from October to December.

Funded the Donegal County Council in place of the cancelled third Falcarragh Winter Jazz Festival, they were joined by Armagh-born drummer David Lyttle, one of the island’s most celebrated instrumentalist, a MOBO Award nominee hailed by the national international press as Ireland’s leading jazz musician.

With a local and international following over 10 weeks, they featured several additional special guests, including acclaimed Irish singer Christine Tobin. They will return to the Shamrock for another four weekly livestreams, again funded by Donegal Country Council, before recording their debut album under a government Music Industry Stimulus Package grant.

Now 24, the twins have been on the rise since graduating from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2019 and when Lyttle hired them to tour with him in Morocco, Cuba, Colombia, Panama, Poland and elsewhere in Europe, 2020 looked like their biggest year to date. All these trips where cancelled due to Covid-19 and the brothers have been happy to be performing again through their livestreams and working towards their debut album.

“After the great response we had from our previous livestream series, we are really excited for this upcoming spring series. We have been trying to stay busy and we have brand new music that is going to feature on our upcoming album. We have been practising a lot and trying to push ourselves musically in these times and we can’t wait to perform again over the next four weeks.”

Lyttle, whose pre-Covid-19 schedule averaged 150 tour dates a year, has also stayed busy, collaborating with film star Liam Neeson in spoken word and mentoring up and coming talent such as Sligo drummer Sam Purcell, winner of Earagail Arts Festival and Jazzlife Alliance’s search for Ireland’s next great drummer.

“It’s great to see Micheál and Conor go from strength to strength and find opportunities in these difficult times. They’ve stayed focused and made the best of what they have, and they’ve continued to get better and better. They’ve also made life a bit brighter for the people who’ve been following them. We’ve always been close friends but this experience has brought us even closer and I’m looking forward to going on tour again as a band when things return to normal.”

The Murray Brothers Trio livestream from the Shamrock Lodge Facebook page on Wednesdays at 8pm until March 10.