This week The Impartial Reporter caught up with musician Seán Magee and Irish dancer Áine McGirr, who have been entertaining audiences at home during the lockdown with their weekly Facebook live streams.

Speaking to this newspaper, Seán, who usually plays gigs locally and further afield, shared how Facebook live streams differ from performing to a live audience, the benefits of music at a time like this and his favourite songs to perform.

What genre/genres do you consider your music to be and how long have you been performing?

I suppose I play in a few different genres! My introduction into music was learning the fiddle when I was seven years old. My dad brought me to lessons with Pat McManus and from there traditional Irish music will always be my main love in music. I then began playing bits on guitar and singing and eventually in 2017 I started to get out gigging solo and playing in the styles of Modern Pop, Folk and Irish trad. Mixing them all together. I had been gigging with my dad Conor Magee previous to this playing fiddle. I started to gig with him when I was 10 years old and we gigged every weekend and then back to school on Monday haha. Then my brother Jamie joined us on accordion a few years later followed by my sister EliRose.

What inspired you to perform live gigs via Facebook?

I suppose I was used to gigging every week and I was just back from a tour in Germany and New York and I was itching to get playing after the buzz from that! Also financially it’s a strain on full time musicians at the moment with obviously no gigs happening so it is a great idea that musicians are posting a virtual tip jar that people can send over some money as a tip for the live Facebook gigs. It all is appreciated and really helps us out. Keep an eye every Friday night 9pm on Sean Magee Music for our live stream.

Áine McGirr has been accompanying you with her Irish dancing, what does it mean to you to have her join you on the virtual stage?

Yes it’s great to have Áine with me on the live videos. Áine is a brilliant Irish dancer and will do a few dances during the live gigs along with me. We have brilliant craic every Friday night together and it’s good to have her along with me as we bounce off each other and it creates a really fun atmosphere.

How long has Áine been dancing and what does she enjoy most about it?

I’ll let her answer this...

Hi it’s Áine! I have been Irish dancing for 20 years now from the age of four, so it has been a massive part of my life!

What I love most about Irish dancing is the friendships you make throughout the years. After years of competitive dancing, I now enjoy being able to dance in a more relaxed atmosphere for people’s entertainment along side Seán’s music. Recently qualifying as a TCRG (Irish dancing teacher) I cannot wait to share my love of dancing to my future pupils!

What has the response to your Facebook Live gigs been like?

The response has been unbelievable every Friday night and really seems to be growing each week.

Each live gig has around 500/600 people watching from start to finish and around 25k views.

I wouldn’t have thought in the beginning that this amount of people would join us every week and we are so grateful.

In what ways does a Facebook Live gig differ from performing to a live audience?

To be honest I don’t find it much different anymore. When I started the ‘lives’ I found it very nerve wrecking but once I got used to doing them it’s now really good fun.

There are so many people commenting in and having a bit of fun between themselves in the comments that I really feed off that and the more viewers that come on I suppose the more adrenaline kicks in. So in a way it’s very similar to live gigs but obviously there is no physical people haha.

What are your favourite songs to perform and why?

I probably most enjoy the fiddle tunes. I tie them in at the end of songs and it works really well!

Do you get many song requests?

So many requests come in each week.

The most popular definitely being Zombie by The Cranberries.

What benefits do you think music can bring during a time like this?

Well for us two, we really look forward to every Friday night and we get messages all week from people saying they can’t wait for next Friday again. So if it’s making people happy and it’s something for them to look forward to then we will continue to do it.

What are you most looking forward to doing when lockdown is fully lifted?

HOLIDAY!!! As soon as it’s safe to do so haha.

Any last words?

I am also doing private Zoom parties for any families/ friends having Zoom calls and want me to come on and play for a 30min set. Thanks so much for having us on here and thanks to everyone so far who has joined us on our Friday night live videos.