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music · Friday 24 July 2026 · 9:30pm 
Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Session at Markey's, Carrickmacross
At Markey's Bar · Main Street, Carrickmacross, Co. Monaghan
At Markey's Bar · Main Street, Carrickmacross, Co. Monaghan
Carrickmacross Comhaltas Ceoltoiri runs a monthly traditional music session in Markey’s Bar on Main Street, Carrickmacross, on the fourth Friday of the month from around 9:30pm. It is the branch’s main public session, distinct from its weekly classes and its Sunday slow session for learners, and it draws musicians from the branch’s own membership as well as visiting players passing through south Monaghan. All musicians and singers are welcome, and there is no charge to attend or to sit in.
Carrickmacross Comhaltas Ceoltoiri is the local branch of Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann, the national organisation for Irish traditional music, and runs music and set-dancing classes through the year alongside this monthly session. The Friday night at Markey’s is the branch’s showcase session: a looser, faster-paced night than the branch’s Sunday afternoon slow session for beginners, aimed at fluent players trading tunes rather than teaching them. Expect fiddles, flutes, banjos and box players working through sets of reels and jigs in the bar’s lounge, with singers taking a turn between tune sets. The branch has run sessions in Carrickmacross for decades and marked fifty years in existence in 2022, so this is a well-established date on the town’s music calendar rather than a one-off night.
Markey’s Bar is on Main Street in Carrickmacross town centre, within walking distance of Market Square and the town’s bus stop on the Dublin-Monaghan route. On-street parking is available around Main Street in the evening.
Carrickmacross is Monaghan’s lace town, with a Lace Gallery on Market Square telling the story of the needlework once shipped as far as London and Paris, and the Michelin Bib Gourmand Courthouse Restaurant nearby. There is more to see in Carrickmacross and across Co. Monaghan.
Heading to Markey's Bar in Carrickmacross? Monaghan has plenty more to see. Read the Carrickmacross area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.
In town for Markey's Bar? These Dublin tours book out in summer.