Elsewhere, you can read all about the 22nd BCMFest (Boston Celtic Music Fest), which takes place at several locations Jan. 16-19, but here are some other upcoming Irish/Celtic events in Greater Boston.

*The Boston College Gaelic Roots series’ 2025 schedule gets off to a terrific start on Jan. 30 with a visit from the duo of Brian Conway and Brendan Dolan at 6:30 p.m. in Connolly House on the BC Chestnut Hill Campus. Conway is one of the finest exemplars of, and respected authorities on, the Sligo fiddle style, which he learned through exposure to legends like Martin Wynne and Andy McGann. His recordings have included “First Through the Gate,” a former Irish Echo Album of the Year, and “Consider the Source,” which saw him team up with a bevy of distinguished Irish musicians. He has also appeared in "Shore to Shore," an acclaimed documentary on traditional Irish music in New York City. Dolan has, like his father Felix, become a mainstay in the New York Irish scene, performing and teaching on piano and flute. He has frequently teamed with Conway as part of the band Pride of New York and with numerous other musicians on stage and on recordings.

•Club Passim in Harvard Square will be the site this month for a pair of album launches by local artists. On Jan. 22, the duo Rakish will perform selections from “Now, O Now,” its third full-length recording. Maura Shawn Scanlin (fiddle, banjo, vocals) and Conor Hearn (guitars, vocals) have fashioned a sound that can be contemplative and serene but also replete with bursts of energy, songs, and tunes alike steeped in a set of influences and interests that extend from Irish and Scottish tradition to Americana and classical music, not to mention poetry and literature – in fact, “Now, O Now” includes settings of two James Joyce poems. Rakish is appearing at BCMFest as the inaugural Brian O’Donovan Legacy Artist. You can read a recent Boston Irish review of the album here.

On Jan. 24, fiddler/guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Kat Wallace lifts the curtain on her debut solo album, “Grand Design.” Wallace has a strong foothold in the Americana landscape, which informs her songwriting (she cites Gillian Welch and John Prine as influences), but she’s also well versed in Irish and Scottish song traditions and can play a mean Irish reel, as she’s demonstrated in pub and house sessions around town. Wallace also will be at BCMFest as a member of five-part vocal harmony group Magpie.

Speaking of singer-songwriters: Cork-born Niall Connolly, now living in Brooklyn, will be on the Passim stage Jan. 8, putting forth his candid, confessional, even vulnerable, yet resilient brand of folk-pop. Connolly’s 2023 release “The Patience of Trees” – his 11th album – is full of ruminations and revelations on the chances we take in allowing ourselves to feel love, whether of the romantic, or platonic, or familial kind. “It’s a Beautiful Life” simultaneously rejoices in the bonds we form, while adding the cautionary “most of the time” to the titular lyrics – and points out the unsettling undercurrents we may bring with us to our relationships (the song’s music video is a wonderful little accomplishment of its own). In a similar vein, “Everything’s Alright” and “We Don’t Have to Talk About It” deal with the dilemma of confronting doubts and demons versus keeping the status quo. But it’s not one big, minor-key (self) pity party, as Connolly – who, for the record, is a husband and father – often adds touches of irony and self-deprecating humor to these meditations: “Now that I’ve found you, I’m second-guessing this second-hand parachute/Now that I’ve found you, I’m saving all my pennies for this hot-air balloon,” he sings on “Up, Up and Away.”

The Boston-area traditional arts and music organization Revels is best known for its longtime annual celebration of the Winter Solstice, but among its other programs is “Revels Fringe,” a collaboration with Passim to present artists who create “genre-bending music without borders.” On Jan. 12, Fringe will present Franco-American singer-songwriter Josée Vachon and New England folk musician Keith Murphy with fiddler Becky Tracy. A Quebec native now living in Maine, Vachon has been performing for decades, her repertoire encompassing traditional folk songs, religious and spiritual songs and contemporary songs, including her own. She also co-founded the Franco-American band Chanterelle, whose members have included Liza Constable and Donna Hébert, and was awarded an Artist Fellowship in Traditional Arts in 2020 from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Vachon has released 12 solo recordings.

Murphy, and Tracy, his wife, are very well known to Greater Boston folk music and dance enthusiasts. He is known for his superb work on guitar, mandolin, and piano and as an arranger – notably for the now-retired Childsplay ensemble – as well as musical director for the “St. Patrick’s Day Celtic Sojourn” productions. He is a highly respected singer of mainly traditional songs from the British Isles, Ireland, France, Canada, and New England, which he delivers in a clear, resonant, and unpretentious voice. Tracy, in addition to playing with Murphy, is a fixture herself in the New England folk music community, renowned for her robust Irish and French Canadian-influenced style. 

Locally based fiddle duo Clara Rose and Raphaella Hero come to Passim on Jan. 27. Rose and Hero met as Berklee College of Music undergrads and bonded during a trip to Sweden, where they discovered the power and beauty of the traditional fiddle duet style, especially that found in Swedish folk music. That experience provided the impetus for their collaboration, through which Rose and Hero draw on other traditions, including Celtic, and their own creativity to produce what they describe as folk-inspired improvisational music that offers the opportunity for meditation and connection. They also will be at BCMFest this year.

•The Burren’s Brian O’Donovan Legacy Series hosts three events this month, starting on Jan. 15 with a double bill of fiddler Isabel Oliart and harpist/vocalist Kieva McGonagle. Oliart started out as a classical violinist but went on to study Celtic-style fiddling, working with Anne Hooper, Katie McNally, and Hanneke Cassel as well as Solas’s Winifred Horan. She has played in The Burren on numerous occasions and been on the “A Celtic Sojourn” and “Says You” radio shows. She has not only won Scottish fiddle competitions – including at the New Hampshire Highland Games – but also a competition for Scottish-style tune-writing, a fast-emerging aspect of her music. In 2023, she released her first album, “Late Evening’s Dram,” with guest musicians Conor Hearn, Elizabeth Anderson, Sammy Wetstein, Maeve Gilchrist, and Elias Alexander. She’s also among the performers at BCMFest this year.

A Donegal native, McGonagle moved to the Boston area in 2022 after completing a degree in Irish music at the University of Limerick Irish World Academy. A foundational experience for her was performing as part of the non-profit Inishowen Traditional Music Project, which seeks to preserve and promote traditional music in Donegal’s Inishowen peninsula. In October, she released the EP “Across the Atlantic,” inspired by her move from Ireland to America and all the tunes and opportunities she has encountered from both countries, such as “Planxty Monaghan,” “The King’s Shilling” and “I Courted a Wee Girl.”

The Legacy Series will present a 4 p.m. matinee show with the Seán Heely Celtic Band on Jan. 19. Heely, a former US National Scottish Fiddle and Gaelic singing champion (whose interests extend to classical and jazz), has performed not only at concert halls and festivals but also at military tattoos – including the Royal Edinburgh – so he has a certain flair for the moment and the place. His repertoire covers Irish and Scottish traditions, into which his compositions fit snugly. Joining Heely are multi-instrumentalist and All-Ireland singing champion Kevin Elam, bouzouki and bass player Beth Patterson, piper Jessie Ofgang, percussionist Lucas Ashby, and percussive dancer Agi Kovacs; their vocal selections include songs in Scots Gaelic as well as ballads, sea shanties and pub songs.

If you’d like to explore sea chanteys and songs beyond the likes of “Drunken Sailor” or “Blow the Man Down,” the Legacy Series will host a Revels Chantey Sing on Jan. 29 with David Coffin, a Greater Boston resident who is a leading authority on, and masterful performer of, maritime music. He’s well known for his frequent appearances through Revels – where he is an artist-in-residence and a presenter in its School Enrichment Program – and his contributions to  Boston Harbor tours. In addition to singing, Coffin plays concertina, recorders, whistles and a whole range of other wind instruments. 

Another event of note at the Burren will be “Echoes of Brigid,”  on Jan. 26 – a celebration of the women of Ireland through poetry, prose, drama, and music staged by Boston-area Irish theater group Here Comes Everybody. There will be a dramatic performance of "Brigid's Letters" from 1898-1900; readings from Edna O’Brien’s “The Country Girls” and “A Ghost in the Throat” by Doireann Ní Ghríofa; poems by Paula Meehan, Nidhi Zak, Aria Eipe and Doireann Ní Ghríofa; and traditional Irish music played by the HCE Trio.