Candlelit Tales was founded by sibling storytellers Aron and Sorcha Hegarty. Sorcha was always a book lover and as the older sibling to Aron (a performer from birth), she would tell him stories to keep him quiet on long bus rides. She quickly found myths were the best way to distract him. Over the years their enthusiasm for story and live performance combined, and they found that once they start telling stories together, they couldn’t stop.

Driven by this shared passion for Irish mythology and expression, we started retelling these ancient stories to a near-empty room upstairs in a Dublin pub one rainy evening in November 2014. The next week, the room was a lot less empty, and the stories were lifted by live music. By the fourth week, the room was full, and so was the hall outside of it.

Since then, over the years of telling stories in the capital of this nation of storytellers, Candlelit Tales have developed and refined a uniquely expressive, naturalistic and modern style. Live music is the heartbeat of all the performances, and a live original music score composed by a team of talented musicians drives the rhythm of the storytelling, weaving through the tale and sweeping the listener away. 

We take our favourite myths, and we don’t shy away from the sex and violence that was always present in the Irish storytelling tradition. We keep the depth, the wisdom, and the richness, and leaven it with humour, passion and playfulness to enchant audiences of all ages. 

We will make you laugh, make you cry, and maybe even make you roar. We want to let these stories live again, and we need you to listen.

• Aron & Sorcha Hegarty