2025: Year In Review

2025 got off to a slow start, with no spring tour. But in spite of that, there was no shortage of news this year.

Celtic Woman welcomed 2 new members: vocalist Caitríona Sherlock and violinist Ciara Ní Mhurchú. In addition, multi-instrumentalist Tara Howley performed with Celtic Woman on the their new Christmas album and on the Christmas symphony tour.

Ronan was announced as the new musical director of Celtic Thunder.

A lot of new music was released this year!

Albums and EPs:

- Nollaig: A Christmas Journey (Celtic Woman)
- The Secret of Christmas (Alex Sharpe)
- ‘Till The Sun Burns Out (The Brave Collide)
- Time (Brian McGrane, as Engrane)
- Christmas Piano (Brian McGrane, as Engrane)
- Spreag (Caitríona Frost)
- Bittersweet (Chloë)
- Motherland Songs (Edel Murphy, Ewan Cowley)
- Moment (Gavin Murphy)
- Wintersong (Glenn Murphy)
- Nightvisiting Live (Lisa Lambe)
- Two Stories (Lisa Lambe)
- 2016 (Lisa Lambe)
- Chapters of Time (Rebecca Winckworth)

Noteable singles:

- Cherokee Ave (The Brave Collide)
- I Will Follow You Into the Dark (The Brave Collide)
- December (The Brave Collide)
- I Love You Always Forever (Chloë)
- Lonely Joy (Lynn)
- Purple Peace (Lynn)
- Cover Me Up (Tara Howley)
- Our Song (Tara Howley)
- Auld Lang Syne (Tara Howley)

In addition, Lynn re-released Saturn Return with two new tracks.

The third annual Celtic World Forum was held at Fitzpatrick Castle in Killiney. The event included 3 full days of panels, workshops, song circles, and concerts. Numerous Celtic Woman performers participated, including Éabha, Meg, Muirgen, Chloë, Tara McNeill, Tara Howley, Caitriona and Glenn. One of the highlights was a Celtic Woman reunion medley with Gavin Murphy!

Caitríona, Ciara, and Tara Howley all made their Celtic Woman concert debuts on the Christmas Symphony tour.

Chloë started her own Patreon page. She hasn’t used it much so far, but we’ll see what she does with it next year. She also joined Cameo, so you can now order video messages from her.

Brian McGrane and Chloë were very active with online shows on StageIt.

Éabha, Tara McNeill, and Emma all welcomed babies to the world.

PBS has been with Celtic Woman from the very beginning. It brought concert specials into our homes. It promoted the tours. It gave us opportunities to meet the girls. It remains to be seen how badly the funding cuts in 2025 are going to hurt Celtic Woman. What is for certain is that the group will depend on its loyal fans more than ever to spread the word, not just online, but within our communities.

The Celtic Woman Forum got attacked by bots for a while, but our admin Glen worked with the hosting company to successfully protect the Forum.

Looking forward to 2026:

For a while, it looked like we were going to have another spring without Celtic Woman. But when it seemed all hope was lost, Celtic Woman announced a spring tour: A New Era! Thus far, it appears it will be a shorter tour than normal, focused almost entirely in Canada and the eastern United States. But there may be more tour dates coming, either in the US or elsewhere in the world.

Éabha will likely host her 4th annual Celtic World Forum.

Both Meg and Mairéad Carlin are planning to release long-awaited original music in 2026. Muirgen also announced she’s releasing new music in the new year. Lisa Lambe has another album coming in spring 2026 as well, which can be pre-ordered on Patreon.

The debut album of The Brave Collide, ‘Till The Sun Burns Out, officially releases in spring, although it’s already available as a digital download and as a CD pre-order. I already have my copy.

Tara Howley ran into a licensing issue that prevented her Christmas album from releasing this year. Now we have something to already look forward to for Christmas 2026!

Celtic Woman is up to 20 members now, past and present, and there are lots of band and choir members to follow as well. Whatever awaits us in 2026, there will be plenty to enjoy from the performers we love.

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