Ciara Mackessy

Ciara Mackessy, from Clough in Co Laois, comes from a very musical family with long roots in music going back 4 generations.

Ciara is a virtuoso tin whistle and concertina musician, who has been influenced by musicians such as Robert Harvey, Tommy Fitzharris, Aoife Green and Liam O’Brien. Ciara has had success in both individual, duet and grupa cheoil and céilí band competitions, and understands the dynamics of each competition type. Ciara also has a background in dancing.

A qualified Special Needs Assistant and current Early Childhood Care and Education student at Mary Immaculate College, Ciara is a firm advocate for children of early ages and varying learning capabilities learning music.

Ciara is one of Spink Comhaltas’ growing list of Micheal Ó h’Eighinn medal recipients for achieving a Distinction on her Grade 8 SCT Concertina exam in 2018. This inspired Ciara to pursue the Advanced Performance Certificate qualification with Comhaltas in 2019 where she also received a Distinction grade, by no means an easy feat.

Ciara recently furthered her Professional Development and added the Comhaltas TTCT qualification from Comhaltas to her list of accomplishments in 2022 making her an officially licenced Comhaltas Teacher.

Ciara’s passion for music is clear to see and she strives to impart as much of that passion as possible into any student she meets.