The Continental Céilí – Irish National Association

Far from their usual stomping ground at Sydney’s Gaelic Club, this mongrel band of troubadours puts a new spin on Irish traditional music. With Portuguese, Swedish, Chinese and Sri Lankan heritage, and forced to navigate the Australian cultural landscape with its many prejudices and exclusions, these musicians have found community in their passion for Irish music.

The musicians are:

Cameron Samy – Bodhran, Guitar, Vocals
Cam enjoys playing Irish tunes and singing Irish songs. He enjoys having the audience sing along and his favourite instrument is the bodhran. He is Australian born and of Sri Lankan background.

Carissa Lee – Guitar
Carissa spent 10 years learning classical piano but picked up a set of uilleann pipes at the age of 15 which she ended up using for her HSC viva voce assessment. She switched to guitar, earnt DADGAD from a Breton musician and backed sessions for two years across Ireland and Europe. Since then, she has developed a rhythmic and percussice accompaniment style through playing with European trad band The Last Aurochs and Irish tunes trio Port agus Ríl. Today she occasionally plays tenor banjo and guitar at sessions around Sydney, including those at the Gaelic Club and Slow Lane Brewery.

Pelle Söderström – Uilleann Pipes, Vocals
Pelle Söderström is a speech scientist bases in Sydney. Classically trained on the oboe from the age of 8, he sang as a boy soprano in church chiors in his native Sweden and played the tin whistle, inspired by bands such as Panxty and The Dubliners. Pelle plays a range of instruments, including guitar, bass and the Irish bouzouki. Welcomed into the Sydney Irish music scene when he moved to Australia in 2018, he took up the uilleann pipes in time for lockdown in 2020. He regularly plays in sessions and the Gaelic Club and the Doss House in Sydney.

João ‘Jaye’ Almeida – Flutue, Portuguese Pipes
João ‘Jaye’ Almeida is a traditional piper and flute player from Lisbon, Portugal. Born in 1984, Jaye started his musical training in 2000 learning classical guitar, electric guitar and bass guitar. Between 2007 and 2009 Jaye co-founded and ran an experimental arts and music collective in Lisbon, organising music festival and events. In 2009 joined the Portuguese Bagpipe Society studying traditional Portuguese piping. In 2011 migrated to Sydney, Australia and there joined the Sydney Slow Session and various other Irish sessions. Between 2016 and 2017 hosted the Gaelic Club trad session. Jaye is a founding member of Sydney bands Celtic Tones, The Last Aurochs, as well as Aljamía. Currently Jaye co-hosts a traditional Irish music session every Sunday at the Doss House.

Ross O’Donovan – Fiddle
Fiddler extraordinaire, Ross O’Donovan is from Ruan, County Clare on the wild Atlantic Coast of Ireland just a stone’s throw from the majestic Cliffs of Moher. Ross grew up in a musical family and is the nephew of Irish trad legend Sharon Shannon. Ross was a regular at sessions in Ennis in his misspent youth and has made several pilgrimafes to Fleadh na hÉireann where he joined with thousands of musical fleadh cowboys to worship at the altar of trad. Ross’s energy, enthusiasm and joy for the music is infectious. (Ross is the token Irishman in the Gaelic Club Céilí Band All-Stars!)

The Continental Céilí premiered at the Irish Film Festival in Sydney in 2024.

The Continental Céilí trailer can be viewed below. Just click on the video to view.