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We are a group of storytellers, performers, and musicians. We tell Irish myths to a live audience with live music.

Candlelit Tales was founded by brother-sister storytelling duo Aron and Sorcha Hegarty. Driven by a passion for Irish mythology, we started retelling the stories to a near-empty room upstairs in a Dublin pub one rainy evening in November. The next week, the room was a lot less empty, and we were joined by musician Ru O’Sé. By the fourth week, the room was full, and so was the hall outside. We realised that when we share our passion, it becomes contagious. And we’ve been telling stories and playing music from that day to this. 

Since then, over the past five years of telling stories in the capital of this nation of storytellers, we have developed and refined our uniquely expressive, naturalistic and modern style. Live music is the heartbeat of all our 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. 

Our guiding light has always been to make these stories accessible and available to as many people as we can. Because we love them, and we want everyone else in the world to have a chance to fall in love with them too. 

We are breathing life back into these old stories, for young and for old and in many different ways.

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.

Sorcha Hegarty

Sorcha is the co-founder of Candlelit Tales. In her youth, she decided that she loved books more than people, and books about mythology most of all. She told the stories to her younger brother to get him to keep quiet, and found that they had the opposite effect, and through that found a love of sharing this strange wisdom with others. If you read something from Candlelit Tales, there’s a good chance she wrote it.

Aron Hegarty

Aron is the co-founder of Candlelit Tales. He has loved stories since he was a small child, and started Candlelit Tales to bring his skills as an actor and performer to this ancient craft. He has brought in most of the other people in Candlelit Tales who he isn’t related to, and is always looking for new ways to bring stories to life. If someone is trying to bring you into this madness, it’s probably Aron.

Oisín Ryan

Aron discovered what Ru did for Candlelit Tales at exactly the moment when Ru went away on holidays. In a panic, he found a brilliant bassist with a mythic name, and told him stories till he wanted to join. Oisin creates the beat that drives Candlelit Tales, in more ways than one. If you see a post or a graphic on social media, odds are you’re looking at Oisin’s work.

Allan Homan

In true form for a Candlelit Tales musician, Al lives for jamming. He had already spent many good nights playing music with Oisín, Audrey and Ru before joining Candlelit Tales in 2019. His sure and steady rhythm has provided the pulse of many a myth since then.