RUNA, a Philadelphia, PA-based contemporary Celtic vocal and instrumental ensemble whose repertoire features traditional and more recently composed music from Ireland, Scotland, Canada and the Untied States and includes both high-energy and more graceful acoustic melodies, was named both Top Group and Top Traditional Group in a Pub, Festival or Concert. Keith Harkin, a singer-songwriter from County Derry, Northern Ireland, who also is a principal singer with the popular vocal group Celtic Thunder, won two awards for Top Solo Performer in Concert and Top Solo Performer in a Pub Venue.

“We are unbelievably excited and honored to be recognized with so many incredible artists,” said Shannon Lambert-Ryan, who fronts RUNA with her rich, vibrant vocals. “We are so grateful to all of our fans (our spectacular RUNAtics) for their unending support and for voting for us,” she continued, expressing thanks also to the Irish Music Association for its support of Irish music and culture. The five-member group, which previously won an award for Best Song in the World Traditional category in the 12th annual Independent Music Awards, is set to release its fourth album this spring.

Phil Coulter, a popular musician, songwriter and producer, who also hails from Derry, was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award., while the Tommy Makem Award went to The Dubliners, an Irish folk band that played its final concerts last month, following a career that spanned more than 50 years.

A complete list of Irish Music Award recipients follows:
Top Solo Performer in Concert: Keith Harkin
Top Solo Performer in a Pub Venue: Keith Harkin
Top Duo in Pub, Festival, and Concert: Ryan Kelly & Neil Byrne
Top Group: RUNA
Best New Irish Music Artist(s): Gothard Sisters
Top Celtic Rock Band: The Fighting Jamesons
Best Irish Tenor (individual): Emmet Cahill
Best Female Vocalist (individual/traditional): Meav
Best Sean-nos Singer: Brid Ni Mhaoilchiaran
Top Traditional Performance Show: The Chieftains
Top Traditional Group – In Festival, Pub & Concert: RUNA
Tommy Makem Award: The Dubliners
Top Harpist: Moya Brennan
Top Uilleann Piper: Kieran O’Hare
Top Fiddle/Violin: Cora Smyth
Top Button Accordion: Danny O’Mahony
Lifetime Achievement Award: Phil Coulter

The Irish Music Association produces, promotes and perpetuates Irish music through sponsored events, festivals, concerts, pub shows, and an annual network production, according to its website.

A self-taught banjo player, who reportedly mastered the instrument by age 12, McKenna joined Ronnie Drew, who had one of the most recognizable voices in Irish folk music, and other friends playing some famously raucous informal sessions on Friday nights at O’Donoghue’s Pub in Dublin’s Merrion Row in 1962 . These sessions, which customarily packed the small pub, marked both the start of the Irish ballad revival and the birth of The Dubliners.

Initially known as The Ronnie Drew Folk Group, The Dubliners’ original members also included Luke Kelly and Ciarin Bourke. Recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in February, the group, which toured internationally and released more than 30 albums, was, perhaps, best known for its bawdy 1967 Irish hit single “Seven Drunken Nights,” as well as renditions of such rousing folk songs as “Black Velvet Band,” “Finnegan’s Wake,” “McAlpine’s Fusiliers” and “The Wild Rover.” Based on Child Ballad #273, “Seven Drunken Nights” contained risqué lyrics that initially caused it to be banned from radio play in Ireland. The Dubliners’ latest release was a two CD set, The Dubliners – A Time to Remember, recorded live in Vienna in September 2009.

Although McKenna had diabetes, was blind in one eye, and had experienced some difficulty walking following a stroke, he continued to perform with the group.

Noted Irish musician Mick Moloney credits McKenna with being single-handedly responsible for making the GDAE-tuned tenor banjo the standard banjo in Irish music, while Michael D. Higgins, Ireland’s president, hailed McKenna for having “made a major contribution to music and song,” noting that “His influence on and generosity to other instrumentalists was immense.” He’s been immortalized in Andy Irvine’s song “O’Donoghue’s, which describes the Irish traditional scene of the 1960s that was centered there.

(Here’s a link to a video of Barney McKenna playing the banjo in concert, accompanied by Eammon Campbell on guitar: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Scawc6Q9heI)

Although the tenor banjo was his primary instrument – and he also can be heard playing it on recordings by Boys of the Lough, the Chieftains, Christy Moore, and The Pogues — McKenna also was adept on the mandolin and melodeon. He also sang comical songs, sea shanties and other crowd favorites on occasion and was noted for the tall tales and funny yarns – often illogical anecdotes that became known as “Barneyisms” – that he shared with audiences during The Dubliners’ concerts.

“The band, his family and friends would like to thank everyone for their kind words and support,” McKenna’s bandmates declared in a prepared statement posted on its website. “Words cannot describe how we all feel. He was one in a million. The greatest tenor banjo player of his generation. Barney spent his life traveling the world playing Irish music. He loved it. The world loved him. May he rest in peace.”