A Voice of Comfort: Niall Connolly

Niall Connolly, an Irish-born singer-songwriter who splits his time between East Durham in Greene County and Rockaway in Queens, has a gift for crafting songs of hope during hard times.

I first heard Niall play with my friend Chris Mills more than a decade ago in the back room of a cozy Irish pub in Brooklyn. Years later, Niall’s name started appearing on marquees outside the bars in my upstate hometown of East Durham. He follows in the footsteps of Irish musicians who’ve found solace in this Irish resort town since the 1950s, but unlike the many traditional singers before him, he plays originals instead of old standards. If you’re into contemporary singer-songwriters with poetic lyrics and melodies that stay with you — say, Glen Hansard from The Frames and The Swell Season, who makes a guest appearance on Niall’s latest full-length — I think you’re going to love Niall.

He’s been writing and performing since he emerged from the Cork music scene in the 1990s, and as much as I enjoy his older work, I think the songs he’s written recently are his most moving and poetic yet. If you haven’t heard him before, I’d recommend starting with “Maybe Next Year,” a bedroom anthem for those missing their loved ones (which became a daily listen for me through the dark winter days of 2020). If you like a big build, try “Sacré-Coeur” — I often find myself humming the hook and the final uplifting refrain, like a mantra for pandemic parenting: “Come on people we are unbeaten yet, I’ll give you everything, everything I have left.” Niall’s most recent track, “We Don’t Have to Talk About It,” is the sonic equivalent to a friend’s outstretched hand, set to a hopeful, clip-clopping beat.

I’m looking forward to catching one of his upcoming live shows, though I’m afraid I’ll spend most of the set sobbing with relief and gratitude as I hear him perform the songs that carried me through.

I asked Niall some questions via email to learn more about his story, and I wanted to share the best tidbits with you:

On leaving Ireland:

“I loved New York, I had some good friends and some family here. I thought I'd see if I could live here for a while. I applied for an O-1 artist visa. The official term for that one is ‘Alien of extraordinary ability.’ I was delighted to be granted that visa and the opportunity to work here as a musician. It's a very long and winding story, but that's where it starts,” Niall said.

On how he ended up in the Emerald Isle of the Catskills:

“We bought our house in East Durham from my aunt, who had had the house for about 30 years,” Niall explained. “My wife is a childhood friend of my first cousin's so she had visited the house herself many times as a child. My own grandparents and much of my extended family would have been there many years before I ever set eyes on the place. I like having this history attached to our home. I loved it the first time I ever visited and we were delighted to be able to buy it and keep it in the family… We have a two and half year old daughter now too. It's great to see the beauty of the natural world through her ever enthusiastic eyes.”

On songwriting in the Catskills:

“I enjoy feeling comparatively tiny in the shadow of tall trees. Sitting by the creek and watching the water go by at varying speeds in different seasons. Feeling time moving a little slower,” Nial mused. “I've also seen a bear, a snapping turtle, hawks, deer and a myriad of wildlife. These situations are as conducive to poetry and song as any crowded subway or bustling city. There's something very freeing about knowing the neighbors are out of earshot and I'm not annoying anyone. When making up melodies it's helpful to at least think that nobody can hear you till you've found what you were seeking.”

Niall Connolly is on Instagram, where you can find out about upcoming shows and follow his adventures with his adorable little daughter. You can support him on Patreon and listen to him on Bandcamp. For upcoming performances, here’s a direct link to his show calendar.

Niall Connolly. Photo by Anthony Mulcahy/ Mulography.