Cormac Begley is a concertina player from West-Kerry. His debut solo album, released in May 2017, has received critical acclaim amassing seven 5-star reviews to date. He plays in a number of musical projects with musicians such as Rushad Eggleston (cello), Liam Ó Connor (fiddle), Liam Ó Maonlaí, Stephen James Smith (poet) and Libby McCrohan (bouzouki).
He is the founder of Airt (Residential Arts School) and the award winning Tunes in the Church live concert series in Galway and Dublin. A former Irish Research Council Scholar, Cormac completed a PhD in Psychology in 2014 in the area of adolescent masculinity.
Working with boys throughout Ireland, he examined the expectations and pressures boys experience growing up in Ireland and how those expectations relate to negative health outcomes. He has published 8 papers to date (5 peer-reviewed) on the area of adolescent masculinity. During this residency in the Dock, Cormac wants to develop a one-man musical piece that explores this research topic. This piece will be premiered during Cormac's residency at the National Concert Hall in Spring 2018.
