Altan Quotes

"We've been compared to Clannad occassionally,"
Ciaron Curran

My dad plays the fiddle. He stopped playing for years. He was playing when I was a baby, and then he stopped for about five years, or ten years, he says. Then all of a sudden he started playing again, and we all got interested. We started having people like Ciarán Tourish coming up to the house, and Dinny McLaughlin, who taught Ciarán, and who taught myself as well. And it just grew from that
Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh 

Well, John Doherty’s playing was very unique. He bowed a lot and used staccato, while I slur a bit. I bow a lot as well, but I do a bit of playing a few notes with the one bow. As you go south there’s more slurring with the bow. As you go north there’s more bowing every note. But sometimes you get the combination of the two in Donegal. 
Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh 

I just love Cape Breton fiddling! I think it's very close. They derive their music from Scottish music. Well, in Donegal we're very influenced by Scottish music as well. Independently the two areas became very alike, because they kind of changed the music a bit from Scotland and we did the same. 
Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh 

"It's something I've never witnessed before; major labels interested in Irish music. It's not just us, of course, there's a major swing to Irish music in general over the last year or so, with people like Christy Moore and Davy Spillane signed to big labels. And you know when the major labels start catching on to it, there's definitely something there." 
Ciaron Curran