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music · Friday 24 July 2026 · 8:00pm 
The Henry Girls
At Cleere's Bar & Theatre · 28 Parliament Street, Kilkenny, Co. Kilkenny
At Cleere's Bar & Theatre · 28 Parliament Street, Kilkenny, Co. Kilkenny
Three sisters from Malin in County Donegal, The Henry Girls have been making audiences stop and listen since they went professional in 2010. Karen, Lorna and Joleen McLaughlin grew up in a house where the button accordion was played before breakfast and Ella Fitzgerald came on after the Bothy Band. That upbringing comes through in their music - a rootsy blend of traditional Irish folk, Americana and bluegrass, held together by close three-part harmonies that the three of them have been singing since childhood. This July they bring that sound to one of Kilkenny’s most-loved small venues, Cleere’s Bar & Theatre on Parliament Street.
Cleere’s opened in 1988 and has stayed deliberately intimate ever since. The theatre seats 100, which means nowhere is very far from the stage - you’ll hear every note of the fiddle, the harp and the guitar, and the harmonies carry in a room that size in a way they never could in a large hall. The Henry Girls are multi-instrumentalists across fiddle, ukulele, banjo, guitar, harp, mandolin, piano and accordion, so the set changes texture as the evening goes on. Expect songs that feel rooted in Irish tradition but pull in American shapes - think old-country melody with folk storytelling rather than a straight trad session. The bar is open throughout, and Cleere’s serves homemade soup, sandwiches and pizza if you want to eat before the show.
Kilkenny city sits roughly in the middle of the country, about 1 hour 20 minutes from Dublin by road on the M9, and an hour from Cork via Cashel. Irish Rail runs direct services from Dublin Heuston and from Waterford; Kilkenny MacDonagh station is a 15-minute walk from Parliament Street or a short taxi ride. Bus Éireann also runs several daily services from Dublin and Waterford. If you’re driving, the most central car parks are at the Kilkenny Shopping Centre on Market Cross and at the Ormonde Road multi-storey - both are walkable to Parliament Street in under ten minutes. Parliament Street itself is pedestrianised in the evenings, so arriving on foot from any of these points is easy.
Kilkenny holds its own as an overnight stop, with the medieval castle, the craft quarter and a generous stretch of independent restaurants and pubs all within a short walk of Cleere’s. There is more to see in Kilkenny and across Co. Kilkenny.
Heading to Cleere's Bar & Theatre in Kilkenny? Kilkenny has plenty more to see. Read the Kilkenny area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.