Throughout the years the presentation of the Hall of Fame Award has been one of the highlights of our annual festival. It is not an honour bestowed lightly, as a brief glance at the list of previous recipients will indicate. It is an award presented to an outstanding individual or group in recognition of their lifetime contribution to the cause of Irish Music and Culture.
This year we are delighted to honour one of the finest Irish female singers.
The 2008 award goes to Mary Black.

Mary Black
Mary Black has long held the attention of followers of Irish music as one of the finest female vocalists in the world. Her distinguished career has spanned over 25 years, from her early days in Dublin folk clubs through ever escalating success, with seven platinum solo albums, one of which, ‘No Frontiers’, spent 56 weeks in the Irish Top 30. Needless to say Mary is a seminal figure in Irish musical history.
The album ‘Without the Fanfare’, in 1985, established what has become a Mary Black trademark, an ability to discover Ireland’s finest contemporary songwriting talent and to have a remarkable voice to project the songs onto a world stage. Perhaps more gratifying than the awards and recognition bestowed upon her is the respect and admiration of her fellow artists, such as Emylou Harris, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Joan Baez to name but a few.
So in 2008, which marks the 25th anniversary of Mary’s first solo album, we welcome her to the Hall of Fame.