Declan O'Rourke announces solo Irish tour

Irish musician Declan O'Rourke has announced his solo Irish national tour, including a date at Dublin's Vicar Street on November 18th.

From an album scheduled for the making in 2024, the Dublin born songwriter will take to the road this October and November, bringing audiences an airing of his first new material since the landmark, Paul Weller-produced Arrivals.

The 2021 LP was nominated for 'International Album Of The Year' at the Americana UK awards. Presented by Singular Artists, O'Rourke will also perform alongside classic gems from across his rich and broad career.

The most emotionally raw and affecting album of his career, Declan’s latest album Arrivals was recorded over six days at the Black Barn studio in Surrey.

The sound is stripped back to the 45-year-old's soulful and resonant voice, virtuosic acoustic guitar playing and only the occasional sparse arrangement of strings and late-night drums bringing colour and light to the LP’s ten songs. Weller, a fan of Declan’s songwriting for some years, also adds his multi-instrumental abilities to the recordings, including a beautiful piano accompaniment to the closing track.

"The tracks on Arrivals are connected by this emphasis on the power of simplicity, more than any clear overarching theme. While O’Rourke is by no means breaking the mould entirely, even songs that appear to rethread familiar territory gradually open up into something new with each listen. It’s not a sound accompanied by a modern sense of urgency or experimentation – but in its captivating exploration of human tenderness, it’s a direction that’s as relevant today as ever," Lucy O'Toole wrote in her Hot Press review.

In October 2022, the International Center for Multigenerational Legacies of Trauma (ICMGLT) announced that Declan O'Rourke was among the recipients of its inaugural Repairer Awards.

The Repairer awards are granted to outstanding artists whose body of work exemplifies the values of the Center in advocating for victims of trauma and educating the public about the lingering effects of trauma across the generations.

O'Rourke released the album Chronicles of The Great Irish Famine back in 2017 to widespread praise. Winner of a 2018 RTÉ Radio One Folk Award and inspired by O’Rourke’s own family history, Chronicles is an empathic portrait of the forgotten and a vivid musical evocation of Ireland through the incomprehensible hardship of the Great Famine.

15 years in the making, the epic LP combines the best of traditional Irish music and the heart of modern song-writing to present a series of extraordinary true tales from the most dynamic period in Irelands history.

Tickets to see Declan O’Rourke go on sale Tuesday, February 14th at 10am.

Live Dates:

Sat 7th Oct: Town Hall Theatre, Cavan
Sat 14th Oct: Town Hall Theatre, Westport
Sat 21st Oct: INEC Acoustic Room, Killarney
Sat 28th Oct: Theatre Royal, Waterford
Fri 3rd Nov: Lime Tree Theatre, Limerick
Sat 4th Nov: Town Hall Theatre, Galway
Fri 10th Nov: Solstice Arts Centre, Navan
Sat 11th Nov: An Tain Arts Centre, Dundalk
Fri 17th Nov: Live at St. Luke's, Cork
Sat 18th Nov: Vicar St., Dublin
Fri 24th Nov: Arts Centre, Mullingar
Sat 25th Nov: Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny