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music · Thursday 24 September 2026 · 8:30pm 
Katherine Priddy
At Kavanaghs Bar & Venue · 28 Main Street, Portlaoise, Co. Laois
At Kavanaghs Bar & Venue · 28 Main Street, Portlaoise, Co. Laois
Katherine Priddy is one of the finest folk voices to come out of Britain in recent years, and catching her in a room as intimate as Kavanagh’s on Main Street is exactly the kind of night that stays with you. This Birmingham-born singer-songwriter has had Richard Thompson calling her “the best thing I’ve heard all year” in Mojo, played the BBC Proms and Glastonbury’s Acoustic Stage, and appeared on Later with Jools Holland alongside Paul Weller and Mark Knopfler. Her Portlaoise show on 24 September 2026 is part of a short Irish run - she also plays Dublin the night before - so this is a rare chance to hear her in a proper sit-down venue rather than a festival field.
Priddy’s songs reward attention. Rooted in English folk but shaped by her literature degree and an ear for quietly devastating narrative, her music draws comparisons to Nick Drake and John Martyn without ever feeling derivative. Her debut album, “The Eternal Rocks Beneath”, went straight to number one on the UK Folk Albums Chart in 2021; her 2026 record “These Frightening Machines” (produced by Rob Ellis) is the one she will be touring here. Expect fingerpicked guitar, a voice that carries a lot without pushing hard, and lyrics that sit in the mind long after the set ends. Kavanagh’s is a proper listening room - the crowd here tends to know why they came, so you can hear every word.
Portlaoise sits at the very centre of Ireland, which makes it one of the easiest towns in the country to reach. The M7 motorway passes close by and the town is about 80 km from Dublin, 100 km from Cork. Irish Rail runs frequent services from Dublin Heuston (roughly 70 minutes) and from Cork and Limerick, with Portlaoise station a short walk from the town centre. For drivers, parking is available on and around Main Street in the evening; the council car parks off JFL Avenue are a reasonable fallback if the street is busy.
Portlaoise is a market town with more going on than its motorway-exit reputation suggests, and the county around it - the Rock of Cashel is not far, and the Slieve Bloom Mountains are on the doorstep - repays a longer look. There is more to see in Portlaoise and across Co. Laois.
Heading to Kavanaghs Bar & Venue in Portlaoise? Laois has plenty more to see. Read the Portlaoise area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.