Biography
-
Years Active
1991 – present (33 years)
-
Founded In
Dungiven, Limavady, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
-
Members
- Cara Dillon (1991 – 1995)
- Maranna McCloskey (1995 – present)
- Murrough O'Kane (1991 – present)
- Paul McLaughlan (1991 – present)
- Ruadhraí O'Kane (1991 – present)
Óige (pronounced "oy-ga") were a four piece band from a small town called Dungiven in County Derry, in the north of Ireland. They were founded in 1991 by the youngest member Murrough O'Kane, who was just thirteen years old at the time. Murrough, his older brother Ruadhrai and Cara Dillon all attended the same school, Saint Patrick's High School (now Saint Patrick's College) in Dungiven when the band was founded, and Paul McLaughlin originally came from the neighbouring town of Limavady.
"Óige" means "youth" in Irish as Cara, Ruadhrai and Murrough were in their teens when the band was founded (Cara was 15, Ruadhrai was 14, Murrough was 13, and Paul was just marginally older than the other band members). Ruadhrai and Cara attended fiddle classes together, while Cara and Murrough attended flute and whistle classes together, and Cara was even at these very early stages an amazing singer already the all-Ireland champion, following in her sister Mary's footsteps, as well as a talented multi-instrumentalist, playing fiddle, tin whistle, flute and bodhrán. (Ruadhrai and Murrough are both sons of the bodhrán player and maker Seamus O'Kane.) Paul came from the neighbouring town of Limavady, before moving to Dungiven. Paul had heavy influences in blues guitar playing, which added a vibrant new sound to the band and had began playing with the band using DADGAD tuning at this time, which was pioneering in traditional Irish music when the band Óige were founded, but has now come to be a popular choice for guitarists.
Artist descriptions on Last.fm are editable by everyone. Feel free to contribute!
All user-contributed text on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply.
